No marble statue could stand more silently or still than Harry and his
favorite gray, who, with erected ears and watchful eye, trembling a
little with excitement, seemed to know what he was about, and to enjoy
it no less keenly than his rider. Tom and the Commodore, quickening
their pace as they got out of ear-shot, retraced their steps quite back
to the turnpike road, along which Harry saw them gallop furiously, in a
few minutes, and turn up, half a mile off, toward the further gulley--he
saw no more, however; though he felt certain that the Commodore was,
scarce ten minutes after he lost sight of them, standing within twelve
paces of him, at the further angle of the swamp--Tom having warily
determined that the two single guns should take post together, while the
two doubles should be placed where the wild quarry could get off
encountering but a single sportsman.
It was a period of intense excitement before the sun rose though it was
of short duration--but scarcely had his first rays touched the open
meadow, casting a huge gray shadow from the rounded hill which covered
half the valley, while all the farther slope was laughing in broad
light, the mist wreaths curling up, thinner and thinner every moment,
from the broad streamlet in the bottom, which here and there flashed out
exultingly from its wood-covered margins--scarcely had his first rays
topped the hill, before a distant shout came swelling on the air, down
the ravine, announcing Jem's approach.
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