The men were asleep.

He counted their indistinct figures, wrapped in blankets; nobody was missing.

Still somebody had disturbed a loose stone and he moved cautiously into the gloom.

One could not creep up to an Indian, but Thirlwell imagined there were none about, and if an Indian had meant to steal something, he would not have crossed the slanting bank strewn with large gravel, from which the noise had come.

Thirlwell, himself, would not have done so, for he had learned to be silent, when hunting in the bush.