But if the worst comes to the worst I can sit
here with my back to this tree and shoot. If you will kindly give me a
rifle and ammunition I shall be ready for the emergency."
"But it is your time to sleep, Mr. Roylston," said the Panther.
"I don't think I can sleep, and as I cannot I might as well be of use."
The Panther brought him the rifle, powder and bullets, and Roylston,
leaning against the tree, rifle across his knees, watched with bright
eyes. Sentinels were placed at the edge of the grove, but the Panther
and Ned, as arranged, were on the high bank overlooking the bed of the
creek. Now and then they walked back and forth, meeting at intervals,
but most of the time each kept to his own particular part of the ground.
Ned found an oak, blown down on the bank by some hurricane, and as there
was a comfortable seat on a bough with the trunk as a rest for his back
he remained there a long time. But his ease did not cause him to relax
his vigilance. He was looking toward the north, and he could see two
hundred yards or more up the creek bed to a point where it curved. The
bed itself was about thirty feet wide, although the water did not have a
width of more than ten feet.
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