Well was it for me that I did so, for at that moment I felt something touch my cheek and heard the loud report of a gun immediately behind me.
Now, the wisest course would have been for me to run before whoever had fired found time to reload.

But a kind of fury seized me, and run I would not.

On the contrary, I turned with a shout, and charged back into the shadow.

Something heard me coming, something fled in front of me.

In a few seconds we were out into the moonlight beyond, and, as I expected, I saw that this something was a man--Pereira! He halted and wheeled round, lifting the stock of his gun, club fashion.
"Thank God! it is you, Heer Allan," he said; "I thought you were a tiger." "Then it is your last thought, murderer," I answered, raising my rifle.
"Don't shoot," he said.