He had decided who this strange being might possibly be.

If it was the person suspected, it was one whom he had met more frequently than he wished, and he prayed that he might never encounter him again in this world.
The certainty that the man had dogged him to this remote spot in the West; that he had patiently plodded after the travelers for many a day and night; that even the trackless river had not sufficed to place distance between them; that, undoubtedly, like some wild beast in his lair, he had watched Richter and his companions as they sat or slumbered near their camp-fire--these, we may well surmise, served to render the missionary for the moment excessively uncomfortable, and to dull the roseate hues in which he had drawn the future.
The termination of this train of thought was the sudden suspicion that this very being was at that moment in close proximity.

Unconsciously, Harvey rose to the sitting position and looked around, half expecting to descry the too well remembered figure.
"Supper is waiting, and so is our appetites, be the same token in your stomachs that is in mine.

How bees it with yourself, Mistress Cora ?" The young wife had risen to her feet, and the husband was in the act of doing the same, when the sharp crack of a rifle broke the stillness, and Harvey plainly heard and felt the whiz of the bullet as it passed before his eyes.
"To the devil wid yer nonsense!" shouted Teddy, furiously springing forward, and glaring around him in search of the author of the well-nigh fatal shot.

Deciding upon the quarter whence it came, he seized his ever-ready rifle, which he had learned to manage with much skill, dashed off at the top of his speed, not heeding the commands of his master, nor the appeals of Mrs.Richter to return.
Guided only by his blind rage, it happened, in this instance, that the Irishman proceeded directly toward the spot where the hunter had concealed himself, and came so very near that the latter was compelled to rise to his feet to escape being trampled upon.