yell, as if from a legion of devils, burst suddenly from
the forest, and brought the hands of the startled officers
instinctively to their swords. This appalling cry lasted,
without interruption, for many minutes, and was then as
abruptly checked as it had been unexpectedly delivered.
A considerable pause succeeded, and then again it rose
with even more startling vehemence than before. By one
unaccustomed to those devilish sounds, no distinction
could have been made in the two several yells that had
been thus savagely pealed forth; but those to whom practice
and long experience in the warlike habits and customs of
the Indians had rendered their shouts familiar, at once
divined, or fancied they divined, the cause. The first
was, to their conception, a yell expressive at once of
vengeance and disappointment in pursuit,--perhaps of some
prisoner who had escaped from their toils; the second,
of triumph and success,--in all probability, indicative
of the recapture of that prisoner. For many minutes
afterwards the officers continued to listen, with the
most aching attention, for a repetition of the cry, or
even fainter sounds, that might denote either a nearer
approach to the fort, or the final departure of the
Indians. After the second yell, however, the woods, in
the heart of which it appeared to have been uttered, were
buried in as profound a silence as if they had never yet
echoed back the voice of man; and all at length became
satisfied that the Indians, having accomplished some
particular purpose, had retired once more to their distant
encampments for the night. Captain Erskine was the first
who broke the almost breathless silence that prevailed