The gray of dawn was in the sky, and between him and the light stood a tall, motionless figure, outlined clearly in the cave's mouth by the coming glow in the east.

It was the figure of a man.

He held in his hand a great horse pistol, and was evidently studying with some curiosity the sleeping figures whose slumbers he had disturbed.
Tom would have sprung to his feet, but the man called out in a clear, sharp voice: "Keep where you are, or I fire!" The hot blood surged into Tom's cheeks; but for once prudence took the upper hand of valour, and he remained sitting upright behind the still recumbent figure of Wildfire.

He had restrained the horse from rising by the pressure of his hand.

He knew by hearsay that robbers seldom fired upon a good horse if there were a chance of making a capture of so valuable an acquisition.