The noise of feet was scarcely audible, but in that
utter stillness I heard the heavy panting breath and caught the swish of
the low bushes against its sides. It went straight towards Joan--and as
it went the girl lifted her head and turned to meet it. And the same
instant a canoe that had been creeping silently and unobserved round the
inner shore of the lagoon, emerged from the shadows and defined itself
upon the water with a figure at the middle thwart. It was Maloney.
It was only afterwards I realised that we were invisible to him where we
stood against the dark background of trees; the figures of Joan and the
animal he saw plainly, but not Dr. Silence and myself standing just
beyond them. He stood up in the canoe and pointed with his right arm. I
saw something gleam in his hand.
"Stand aside, Joan girl, or you'll get hit," he shouted, his voice
ringing horribly through the deep stillness, and the same instant a
pistol-shot cracked out with a burst of flame and smoke, and the figure
of the animal, with one tremendous leap into the air, fell back in the
shadows and disappeared like a shape of night and fog.
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