Their own talk was so pleasant, and the sound of their voices was such a cure for lonesomeness on a dark night, that they did not hear the man at the little slit of a window utter a faint warning hiss.  Nor did they hear something a moment later fall with a slight metalic sound on the bark floor of the prison.  The sound was repeated in an instant, but still they did not hear it, and then the figure of a man, melting back to a shadow, glided away from the house and into the bushes and thence to the forest, where it was lost.

Carlos and Juan chatted until their cigarritos were smoked out.  Then they shouldered their muskets and continued the watch that seemed to them so easy.  How could unarmed men escape through such a thickness of logs?  The shadow in the forest was lost to the sight of any possible Spaniard, but not to the sight of another shadow that arose from the bushes and flitted after it.  The two shadows were now deep in the forest, but the second hung close on the first, making no noise, and sinking quickly to the ground, when the other looked back.

This second shadow, as it passed through a partially open space, also revealed itself in the moonlight as a man, but a man ghastly and terrible in appearance.  He had a hideous, feline face, and he was naked, save a breech-cloth at the waist.  He carried but a single weapon, a knife in his ready hand, but the eyes were those of the most utter savage expecting a speedy prey.

The first shadow reached a little grove free from undergrowth and stopped.  He was about to lie down, rifle by his side, and seek sleep, but his ear, attuned to the wilderness, caught a faint sound.  It was not the wind among the leaves, nor the gliding of a snake nor the chirp of an insect, but a sound that was not a part of the night harmony.  The sensitive ear had given him warning, as the instinct of an animal warns that an enemy has come.

The first shadow slid from the grove and into the undergrowth, sank low, and, waiting, caught sight of the second shadow, the man who pursued.  He saw the naked figure, the feline face, and the ready knife in hand.  The skill and wonderful forest intuition of the second man had been matched by those of the first.

The pursued, when he caught that glimpse of his pursuer, laid his rifle carefully on the earth, because he did not wish a shot to be heard, and drew his own knife.  Slight as was the sound that he made the other heard it, turned in a flash, and the two sprang at each other.

The moonlight streamed for a moment along their knife blades and then they struck.  One stepped back, and remained standing upright.  The other swayed a moment and then fell without a sound, lying upon his back.

He who lay staring with sightless eyes up at the moon was the man with the feline face and the body naked save for the cloth at the waist.  The other, unharmed, stood, looking at him a moment or two, and then plunged deeper into the forest.