I was not watching the crest.
After I bathed at the stream to open my eyes better, I began overhauling the commissary for a bite with which to refresh the inner man.

I was sitting yonder, my back against the big stone, munching away contentedly, humming the words of a song to keep me awake, when I chanced to glance up to mark the position of the moon, and there that hell's imp danced in the sheen as he has been dancing ever since.
_Sacre_! it was the bravest deed of my life to crawl here and awaken you; the devilish thing did charm me as a snake does a bird." The mere sound of human speech put new heart into me, yet I found it difficult to avert my eyes from that fantastic figure.
"If that is the Devil," I said more composedly, still enthralled by the baleful presence, "surely we have neither of us done so much evil as to make us especially his victims." As I concluded these words, my courage creeping back, a sudden rustling among the pines at our back startled us to glance around.

Out of the gloom of the rock shelter a figure uplifted itself on all fours, and the faint light of a star glimmered directly down upon an upraised, terror-stricken face.

Before either De Noyan or myself could mutter a hasty warning, the half-awakened preacher sent his great, gruff voice booming out into the air: "O Lord God of Israel deliver Thy servant from destruction and the clutch of the Evil One.

O Lord God of----" I flung myself on him, clutching his brawny throat, throttling his speech into a vain gurgle.