Лучшие романы Томаса Майна Рида / The Best of Thomas Mayne Reid

Spurring his horse to aВ still more rapid pace, he also entered the opening; but only in time to get aВ glimpse of the other, just passing under the shadow of the trees, at the point where the avenue angled.

Without hesitation, he rode after; soon disappearing at the same place, and in aВ similar manner.

It was aВ longer interval before the third and hindmost of the horsemen approached the pass that led through the chapparal.

He did approach it, however; but instead of riding into it, as the others had done, he turned off at an angle towards the edge of the timber; and, after leaving his horse among the trees, crossed aВ corner of the thicket, and came out into the opening on foot.

Keeping along it – to all appearance still more solicitous about something that might be in his rear than anything that was in front of him – he at length arrived at the shadowy turning; where, like the two others, he abruptly disappeared in the darkness.

An hour elapsed, during which the nocturnal voices of the chapparal – that had been twice temporarily silenced by the hoofstroke of a horse, and once by the footsteps of a man – had kept up their choral cries by a thousand stereotyped repetitions.

Then there came aВ further interruption; more abrupt in its commencement, and of longer continuance. It was caused by aВ sound, very different from that made by the passage of either horseman or pedestrian over the prairie turf.

It was the report of a gun, quick, sharp, and clear – the “spang” that denotes the discharge of a rifle.

As to the authoritative wave of the conductor’s baton the orchestra yields instant obedience, so did the prairie minstrels simultaneously take their cue from that abrupt detonation, that inspired one and all of them with a peculiar awe.

The tiger cat miaulling in the midst of the chapparal, the coyoté howling along its skirts; even the jaguar who need not fear any forest foe that might approach him, acknowledged his dread of that quick, sharp explosion – to him unexplainable – by instantly discontinuing his cries.

As no other sound succeeded the shot – neither the groan of a wounded man, nor the scream of a stricken animal – the jaguar soon recovered confidence, and once more essayed to frighten the denizens of the thicket with his hoarse growling.