the tasseled jungle. Here, as in the woods, he followed them,
step by step, guided by the noise of their progress through the

canes.
Beyond the cornfield ran a road that, skirting to the south of

Lewes, led across a woodenbridge to the wide salt marshes that
stretched between the town and the distant sand hills. Coming out

upon this road Hiram found that he had gained upon those he
followed, and that they now were not fifty paces away, and he

could see that Levi's companion carried over his shoulder what
looked like a bundle of tools.

He waited for a little while to let them gain their distance and
for the second time wiped his forehead with his shirt sleeve;

then, without ever once letting his eyes leave them, he climbed
the fence to the roadway.

For a couple of miles or more he followed the two along the
white, level highway, past silent, sleeping houses, past barns,

sheds, and haystacks, looming big in the moonlight, past fields,
and woods, and clearings, past the dark and silent skirts of the

town, and so, at last, out upon the wide, misty salt marshes,
which seemed to stretch away interminably through the pallid

light, yet were bounded in the far distance by the long, white
line of sand hills.

Across the level salt marshes he followed them, through the rank
sedge and past the glassy pools in which his own inverted image

stalked beneath as he stalked above; on and on, until at last
they had reached a belt of scrub pines, gnarled and gray, that

fringed the foot of the white sand hills.
Here Hiram kept within the black network of shadow. The two whom

he followed walked more in the open, with their shadows, as black
as ink, walking along in the sand beside them, and now, in the

dead, breathless" target="_blank" title="a.屏息的">breathlessstillness, might be heard, dull and heavy, the
distant thumping, pounding roar of the Atlantic surf, beating on

the beach at the other side of the sand hills, half a mile away.
At last the two rounded the southern end of the white bluff, and

when Hiram, following, rounded it also, they were no longer to be
seen.

Before him the sand hill rose, smooth and steep, cutting in a
sharp ridge against the sky. Up this steep hill trailed the

footsteps of those he followed, disappearing over the crest.
Beyond the ridge lay a round, bowl-like hollow, perhaps fifty

feet across and eighteen or twenty feet deep, scooped out by the
eddying of the winds into an almost perfect circle. Hiram,

slowly, cautiously, stealthily, following their trailing line of
footmarks, mounted to the top of the hillock and peered down into

the bowl beneath. The two men were sitting upon the sand, not
far from the tall, skeleton-like shaft of a dead pine tree that

rose, stark and gray, from the sand in which it may once have
been buried, centuries ago.

XII
Levi had taken off his coat and waistcoat and was fanning himself

with his hat. He was sitting upon the bag he had brought from
the mill and which he had spread out upon the sand. His

companion sat facing him. The moon shone full upon him and Hiram
knew him instantly--he was the same burly, foreign-looking

ruffian who had come with the little man to the mill that night
to see Levi. He also had his hat off and was wiping his forehead

and face with a red handkerchief. Beside him lay the bundle of
tools he had brought--a couple of shovels, a piece of rope, and a

long, sharp iron rod.
The two men were talking together, but Hiram could not understand

what they said, for they spoke in the same foreign language that
they had before used. But he could see his stepbrother point with

his finger, now to the dead tree and now to the steep, white face
of the opposite side of the bowl-like hollow.

At last, having apparently rested themselves, the conference, if
conference it was, came to an end, and Levi led the way, the

other following, to the dead pine tree. Here he stopped and
began searching, as though for some mark; then, having found that

which he looked for, he drew a tapeline and a large brass pocket
compass from his pocket. He gave one end of the tape line to his

companion, holding the other with his thumb pressed upon a
particular part of the tree. Taking his bearings by the compass,

he gave now and then some orders to the other, who moved a little
to the left or the right as he bade. At last he gave a word of

command, and, thereupon, his companion drew a wooden peg from his
pocket and thrust it into the sand. From this peg as a base they

again measured, taking bearings by the compass, and again drove a
peg. For a third time they repeated their measurements and then,

at last, seemed to have reached the point which they aimed for.
Here Levi marked a cross with his heel upon the sand.

His companion brought him the pointed iron rod which lay beside
the shovels, and then stood watching as Levi thrust it deep into

the sand, again and again, as though sounding for some object
below. It was some while before he found that for which he was

seeking, but at last the rod struck with a jar upon some hard
object below. After making sure of success by one or two

additional taps with the rod, Levi left it remaining where it
stood, brushing the sand from his hands. "Now fetch the shovels,

Pedro," said he, speaking for the first time in English.
The two men were busy for a long while, shoveling away the sand.

The object for which they were seeking lay buried some six feet
deep, and the work was heavy and laborious, the shifting sand

sliding back, again and again, into the hole. But at last the
blade of one of the shovels struck upon some hard substance and

Levi stooped and brushed away the sand with the palm of his hand.
Levi's companion climbed out of the hole which they had dug and

tossed the rope which he had brought with the shovels down to the
other. Levi made it fast to some object below and then himself

mounted to the level of the sand above. Pulling together, the
two drew up from the hole a heavy iron-bound box, nearly three

feet long and a foot wide and deep.
Levi's companion stooped and began untying the rope which had

been lashed to a ring in the lid.
What next happened happened suddenly, swiftly, terribly. Levi

drew back a single step, and shot one quick, keen look to right
and to left. He passed his hand rapidly behind his back, and the

next moment Hiram saw the moonlight gleam upon the long, sharp,
keen blade of a knife. Levi raised his arm. Then, just as the

other arose from bending over the chest, he struck, and struck
again, two swift, powerful blows. Hiram saw the blade drive,

clean and sharp, into the back, and heard the hilt strike with a
dull thud against the ribs--once, twice. The burly, black-

bearded wretch gave a shrill, terrible cry and fell staggering
back. Then, in an instant, with another cry, he was up and

clutched Levi with a clutch of despair by the throat and by the
arm. Then followed a struggle, short, terrible, silent. Not a

sound was heard but the deep, panting breath and the scuffling of
feet in the sand, upon which there now poured and dabbled a

dark-purple stream. But it was a one-sided struggle and lasted
only for a second or two. Levi wrenched his arm loose from the

wounded man's grasp, tearing his shirt sleeve from the wrist to
the shoulder as he did so. Again and again the cruel knife was

lifted, and again and again it fell, now no longer bright, but
stained with red.

Then, suddenly, all was over. Levi's companion dropped to the
sand without a sound, like a bundle of rags. For a moment he lay