Since the ponies were on the opposite side of the fire, Jack was nearer the intruder than either they or his friends, sleeping by the camp-fire.

Recalling that his place was the most favorable possible, he remained as motionless as the tree-trunk behind him, and to which he stood close enough to touch by moving his foot a few inches backward.
The situation being thus, it followed that if the man or beast continued its advance it must come into sight, while Jack himself was invisible.
He therefore held his Winchester ready for instant use and waited.
He was standing in this expectant attitude when a remarkable thing took place.

The fire, having remained unreplenished for some time, had subsided to a considerable extent, when one of the embers fell apart and caused such a displacement of the burning wood that the light flared up and penetrated with its former vigor beyond the tree which sheltered the sentinel.
Jack was as immovable as a statue, his weapon grasped in both hands, when this sudden brightening occurred.

He was peering out among the dark trees, in the effort to identify the danger, when he saw the unmistakable figure of an Indian, hardly twenty feet away.
The buck had entered the grove with the silence of a shadow, and was making his way to the camp-fire, when betrayed in this singular manner to the watcher.

In the reflection of the firelight, his naturally hideous countenance was repulsive to the last degree.