Keep your eyes
skinned, and give me a nudge if you see such a clump."
But there was no need to keep my eyes skinned. At the next bend of
the glade he and I caught sight of it simultaneously--a clump of
noble pines that would have challenged notice even had we not been
searching for them. My heart stood still as I counted them.
Yes; there were five!
"I haven't often wanted to put a knife into a man's back," grunted
Mr. Rogers, with a gloomy glance ahead at Dr. Beauregard.
For an instant I made sure the Doctor had overheard him. He halted
suddenly, and turned to us with a proprietary wave of the hand
towards the trees.
"A fine group, sirs, is it not? I have often regretted that
the cliff yonder just cuts off the view of it from my windows.
Indeed, I had almost altered the site of the house to include it.
But health before everything--hey, ladies? There is always a certain
amount of fever in these valleys, and you will own, presently, that
the site I prepared has its compensations."
He resumed his way past the trees, and--a quarter of a mile beyond
them--past an angle of the cliff where the ridge bent sharply back
from the river and revealed a narrow gorge, its entrance choked with
pines, running up towards the mountain.
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