Yet , for the first time , he found that Julia 's warnings , though he had laughed at her at the moment , had remained in his memory , and he glanced at the bushes with a certain sense of fear which was quite new to him . When he reached the river he paused and looked round for a moment to make sure that the strange feeling of some one watching him was fancy , and he was really alone . But the moon shone brightly on every tree , and nothing was to be seen but his own shadow ; nothing was to be heard but the sound of the rippling stream . He threw off his clothes , and was just about to dive in headlong , when something -- he did not know what -- suddenly caused him to look round . At the same instant the moon passed from behind a cloud , and its rays fell on a beautiful golden-haired woman standing half hidden by the ferns . With one bound he caught up his mantle , and rushed headlong down the path he had come , fearing at each step to feel a hand laid on his shoulder . It was not till he had left the last trees behind him , and was standing in the open plain , that he dared to look round , and then he thought a figure in white was still standing there waving her arms to and fro . This was enough ; he ran along the road harder than ever , and never paused till he was save in his own room . With the earliest rays of dawn he went back to the forest to see whether he could find any traces of the Yara , but though he searched every clump of bushes , and looked up every tree , everything was empty , and the only voices he heard were those of parrots , which are so ugly that they only drive people away . ' I think I must be mad , ' he said to himself , ` and have dreamt all that folly ' ; and going back to the city he began his daily work . But either that was harder than usual , or he must be ill , for he could not fix his mind upon it , and everybody he came across during the day inquired if anything had happened to give him that white , frightened look . ' I must be feverish , ' he said to himself ; ` after all , it is rather dangerous to take a cold bath when one is feeling so hot . ' Yet he knew , while he said it , that he was counting the hours for night to come , that he might return to the forest . In the evening he went as usual to the creeper-covered house . But he had better have stayed away , as his face was so pale and his manner so strange , that the poor girl saw that something terrible had occurred . Alonzo , however , refused to answer any of her questions , and all she could get was a promise to hear everything the next day . On pretence of a violent headache , he left Julia much earlier than usual and hurried quickly home . Taking down a pistol , he loaded it and put it in his belt , and a little before midnight he stole out on the tips of his toes , so as to disturb nobody . Once outside he hastened down the road which led to the forest . He did not stop till he had reached the river pool , when holding the pistol in his hand , he looked about him .
At every little noise -- the falling of a leaf , the rustle of an animal in the bushes , the cry XXXXX a night-bird -- he sprang up and cocked his pistol in the direction of the sound .
about as before for of so that till to upon