At the same moment the convict screamed out a curse at us and hurled a rock which splintered up against the boulder which had sheltered us.

I caught one glimpse of his short, squat, strongly built figure as he sprang to his feet and turned to run.
At the same moment by a lucky chance the moon broke through the clouds.
We rushed over the brow of the hill, and there was our man running with great speed down the other side, springing over the stones in his way with the activity of a mountain goat.

A lucky long shot of my revolver might have crippled him, but I had brought it only to defend myself if attacked and not to shoot an unarmed man who was running away.
We were both swift runners and in fairly good training, but we soon found that we had no chance of overtaking him.

We saw him for a long time in the moonlight until he was only a small speck moving swiftly among the boulders upon the side of a distant hill.

We ran and ran until we were completely blown, but the space between us grew ever wider.
Finally we stopped and sat panting on two rocks, while we watched him disappearing in the distance.
And it was at this moment that there occurred a most strange and unexpected thing.