For a little I could not make out what they were after.  One of the rascals climbed up a well-grown fir-tree upon one side of the glade, and tied a rope round the top of the trunk.  He then fastened another rope in the same fashion to a similar tree upon the other side.  The two loose ends were now dangling down, and I waited with some curiosity, and just a little trepidation also, to see what they would do next.  The whole band pulled upon one of the ropes until they had bent the strong young tree down into a semi-circle, and they then fastened it to a stump, so as to hold it so.  When they had bent the other tree down in a similar fashion, the two summits were within a few feet of each other, though, as you understand, they would each spring back into their original position the instant that they were released.  I already saw the diabolical plan which these miscreants had formed.

‘I presume that you are a strong man, Colonel,’ said the chief, coming towards me with his hateful smile.

‘If you will have the kindness to loosen these cords,’ I answered, ’I will show you how strong I am.’

’We were all interested to see whether you were as strong as these two young saplings,’ said he.  ’It is our intention, you see, to tie one end of each rope round your ankles and then let the trees go.  If you are stronger than the trees, then, of course, no harm would be done; if, on the other hand, the trees are stronger than you, why, in that case, Colonel, we may have a souvenir of you upon each side of our little glade.’

He laughed as he spoke, and at the sight of it the whole forty of them laughed also.  Even now if I am in my darker humour, or if I have a touch of my old Lithuanian ague, I see in my sleep that ring of dark, savage faces, with their cruel eyes, and the firelight flashing upon their strong white teeth.

It is astonishing—­and I have heard many make the same remark—­how acute one’s senses become at such a crisis as this.  I am convinced that at no moment is one living so vividly, so acutely, as at the instant when a violent and foreseen death overtakes one.  I could smell the resinous fagots, I could see every twig upon the ground, I could hear every rustle of the branches, as I have never smelled or seen or heard save at such times of danger.  And so it was that long before anyone else, before even the time when the chief had addressed me, I had heard a low, monotonous sound, far away indeed, and yet coming nearer at every instant.  At first it was but a murmur, a rumble, but by the time he had finished speaking, while the assassins were untying my ankles in order to lead me to the scene of my murder, I heard, as plainly as ever I heard anything in my life, the clinking of horseshoes and the jingling of bridle-chains, with the clank of sabres against stirrup-irons.  Is it likely that I, who had lived with the light cavalry since the first hair shaded my lip, would mistake the sound of troopers on the march?