The ground descended very gradually, and the narrow valley wound along among rolling hills that were covered with trees and brush.  As he confined himself to the thicker parts of this, his progress was necessarily slow; but at the end of that turn he saw before him unmistakable signs of the neighborhood of some open place.  Before him he saw the sky in such a way that it showed the absence of forest trees.  He now moved on more cautiously, and, quitting the valley, he crept up the hill-slope among the brush as carefully as possible, until he was at a sufficient height, and then, turning toward the open, he crept forward from cover to cover.  At length he stopped.  A slight eminence was before him, beyond which all was open, yet concealed from his view.  Descending the slope a little, he once more advanced, and finally emerged at the edge of the forest.

He found himself upon a gentle declivity.  Immediately in front of him lay a lake, circular in shape, and about a mile in diameter, embosomed among wooded hills.  At first he saw no signs of any habitation; but as his eyes wandered round he saw upon his right, about a quarter of a mile away, an old stone house, and beyond this smoke curling up from among the forest trees on the borders of the lake.

The scene startled him.  It was so quiet, so lonely, and so deserted that it seemed a fit place for a robber’s haunt.  Could this be indeed the home of his enemies, and had he thus so wonderfully come upon them in the very midst of their retreat?  He believed that it was so.  A little further observation showed figures among the trees moving to and fro, and soon he distinguished faint traces of smoke in other places, which he had not seen at first, as though there were more fires than one.

Dacres exulted with a fierce and vengeful joy over this discovery.  He felt now not like the fugitive, but rather the pursuer.  He looked down upon this as the tiger looks from his jungle upon some Indian village.  His foes were numerous, but he was concealed, and his presence unsuspected.  He grasped his dagger with a firmer clutch, and then pondered for a few minutes on what he had better do next.

One thing was necessary first of all, and that was to get as near as he possibly could without discovery.  A slight survey of the situation showed him that he might venture much nearer; and his eye ran along the border of the lake which lay between him and the old house, and he saw that it was all covered over with a thick fringe of trees and brush-wood.  The narrow valley along which he had come ended at the shore of the lake just below him on his right, and beyond this the shore arose again to a height equal to where he now was.  To gain that opposite height was now his first task.

Before starting he looked all around, so as to be sure that he was not observed.  Then he went back for some distance, after which he descended into the valley, crouching low, and crawling stealthily among the brush-wood.  Moving thus, he at length succeeded in reaching the opposite slope without appearing to have attracted any attention from any pursuers.  Up this slope he now moved as carefully as ever, not relaxing his vigilance one jot, but, if possible, calling into play even a larger caution as he found himself drawing nearer to those whom he began to regard as his prey.