Jack and His Seven Foes — page 95: what you’re looking at

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86 where the foliage was so dense that bright noon only made twilight among the trees. There he lay down, shivering like a wild beast in its lair. The dread of death which we all have, boast and brag as we may, was upon him with tenfold force. ‘The thought of the Great Unknown beyond the grave appalled him. The coward dies a thousand deaths, and the wretched old man was doomed to die ten thousand. All that day he lay, and scarcely stirred. | The woods were still, almost as still as the grave itself. * No wind was stirring outside, and in that dense spot no song-bird ever piped to its mate. The stealthy rustle of small animals and creeping things alone broke the stillness. Night came on, and the darkness descended like a curtain. He cowered close, and covered his face with his hands. “But why should I fear it?” he asked himself. “It 1s my friend. It hides me from him.”’ ; He drew his hands away, and saw a sight that caused him to leap to his feet with amazement and terror. The wood was illuminated by ten thousand httle lamps moving about. Who was it—tfairies, hobgoblins, or what? Then in a moment he remembered having heard of fireflies. And these were the famous fireflies of America without a doubt. They buzzed about him, and lit upon JACK AND HIS SEVEN FOES. selves until some signal from their leaders drew them away. © He saw them dance into the distance, and night, black as the centre of the Great Pyramid, was upon him again. He crept to a tree and lay down, and, strange to say, by-and-by he slept. When he awoke, it was light again, and, rising, he walked on slowly through the wood. | % _ The dread of the day before was on himagain. Nervously he glanced about hin. Every slight sound seemed to speak. of the coming of Jack. ‘This is the fifth day,’ he thought. ‘¢ 1 have to-morrow, and then—” He shuddered, and, leaning against the trunk of a tree, wiped the perspira- tion from his brow. | All that day he ate nothing. Some- times he went on, sometimes he stopped, and occasionally he retraced his steps, as if to seek his companions again. At night he lay down and slept again. It was not so strange, after all, for do not condemned men sleep with the noise of the scattold-building in their ears P Tbe sixth day came, and he had fasted thirty-six hours. Hunger assailed’ him, and he ate one of the ship-biscuits he had brought with him. ‘hen he rehearsed the action of the day before, a little forward and a little- backward, with long rests between. The last night came, and he lay down. to sleep, and did not woo the goddess in vain, Slumber closed his eyelids, and kept them sealed until the seventh day the trees and ground, disporting them- | had come and was far advanced. — SON LOLOL en ton toa tony CHAPTER AAXITT, THis SEVENTH DAY --THE-DAST. oFRIGHT. POR .DIeE. AN Do For THE seventh day. He stood up as he awoke, stretched | himself, yawned, and wendered, in the half-unconsciousness that comes waking from a dead sleep, gwhy he was alone. : Then the awful truth flashed upon him. This was the day the enemy had ap- pointed for him to die. with | ) | | IT. But was it really his last ? Here he was alone in a solitary wood. hundreds.of miles from the spot where: Jack had passed sentence upon him. How was that sentence to be executed P He looked around him, and closely scanned the wood. It was a more open spot than where he first rested, and the | daylhe¢ht shone brightly around him. C SS COMIC DOCKS 1ECO