But Pereo, with the quick observation of insanity, had noticed the weapon, and rubbed his hands together, with a malicious laugh.
"Good! good! good!" he whispered, rapidly, in a strange bodiless voice; "'t will serve! 't will serve! And you are a soldier too--and know how to use it! Good, it is a Providence!" He lifted his hollow eyes to heaven, and then added, "Come! come!" Carroll stepped towards him.

He was alone and in the presence of an undoubted madman--one strong enough, in spite of his years, to inflict a deadly injury, and one whom he now began to realize might have done so once before.

Nevertheless, he laid his hand on the old man's arm, and, looking him calmly in the eye, said, quietly, "Come?
Where, Pereo?
I have only just arrived." "I know it," whispered the old man, nodding his head violently.

"I was watching them, when you rode up.

That is why I lost the scent; but together we can track them still--we can track them.