saddle, swung his light cavalry carbine from his back to the hollow of
his arm, and in another moment was lost to sight in the darkness. A
snake could not have slipped away more stealthily. I heard a stone
rattle under his foot, a half-suppressed oath, and then the night had
completely swallowed him.

How utterly alone I seemed; how intensely, painfully still everything
was! The silence felt almost like a weight, so greatly it oppressed me.
Even the accustomed voices of nature were hushed, as if war, with its
unspeakable cruelty, had cast a spell over all things animate and
inanimate. It was weird, uncanny. With every nerve strained I leaned
forward across the pommel of my saddle, listening for the slightest
sound out in that black void. My head burned and throbbed as with
fever, and I felt that strange, unnatural stillness as though it had
been a physical thing; surely others besides us were upon this hilltop!
For I knew well--my every soldier instinct told me--that somewhere out
in that impenetrable mystery were blazing the camp-fires of an enemy.
Vigilant eyes were peering everywhere in search for such as we. How far
away they might lurk I could not even conjecture,--perhaps merely
around some near projecting wall of rock,--and we might even now be
within the range of their ready rifles. I could hear the quickened
throbbing of my heart, and my hand fell heavily on a pistol butt in
nervous expectancy.

The soft night wind, heavy with pine odors, began suddenly to play amid
the leaves of a low tree beside me, and the pleasant rustling mingled
like strains of music with the slow breathing of the horses, but no
other sound broke a silence that had become a positive pain. Man at his
best is largely a creature of impulse, and I confess to a feeling
almost of terror as I sat there in utter loneliness. I glanced behind,