"
"Test them, sir, for I suspect they have been tampered with."
"What?"
"If ever, sir, you have pursued some wild beast, a bear or a buffalo,
for instance, you know the rule surely: never rely upon any weapon which
has not been freshly loaded by your own hand. Let us take the loading
out of your pistols. It won't do to fire them off for we are lying in
wait for big game and at such times one must keep very quiet."
Szilard hearkened to the warning and drew the loading out of both his
well charged pistols. It is usual when the powder is taken out to blow
down the barrel and as he did so now he remarked that something was
wrong. The ramrod encountered some soft substance which he drew forth.
Juon smelt it and pronounced it to be the wax of wild bees.
"You see, sir, you will not be able to discharge this pistol, for the
touch holes are so plugged up that it will take you some hours to
thoroughly clean them."
"At any rate I have still the firearms of my pandurs."
"Let us examine them also, sir!"
They did so forthwith and found that they too had been utterly ruined.
And all this must have been done while Szilard had been sitting outside
and his men had been sleeping!
"Then your sword is sharp, sir, eh?" enquired the blind man, "for I
hear the footsteps of Fatia Negra."
The sensitive ears of the blind man "scented" so to speak the well known
footfalls while they were still approaching on the distant forest paths.
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