second hour after his departure had been completed the
chiefs awakened all the others and announced that they would start at
once for the great camp.

Alloway growled and cursed under his breath.

"What is it?" he said to Braxton Wyatt, who had been talking with Red
Eagle and Yellow Panther. "Can't we finish in peace what's left of the
night?"

"We must yield to the chiefs, sir," said Wyatt. "If we don't there will
be trouble, and the whole expedition will fail before it's fairly
started. While we were asleep they heard an owl hoot from several
different points of the compass, and they think it an omen of evil. They
may be right, because a scout, a man of uncommon skill, whom they sent
out two hours ago with instructions to return in an hour or less, has
not come back. If you consider the misfortunes that have befallen us
tonight, you can't blame 'em."

The hoot of the owl, much nearer, came suddenly through the forest. To
the chiefs and to the white men as well it had a long menacing note. It
was an omen of ill and it came from the Place of Evil Dreams. Yellow
Panther and Red Eagle, great chiefs, victors in many a forest foray,
shuddered. Fear struck like daggers at their hearts.

"Gray Beaver, our scout, will never come back," said Yellow Panther, and
Red Eagle nodded.

The surcharged air affected Alloway and the other white men also. The
obvious fears of the chiefs and the black wilderness about him created
an atmosphere that the colonel could not resist. He glanced at the dark
files of the trees and listened to the low moaning of the river as it
flowed past. Then from a point in the south came that warning, plangent
cry of the evil bird. Perspiration stood out on the brows of the chiefs
and Alloway himself was shaken. Superstition and fears bred of the
wilderness and its darkness entered into his own soul. The place
suddenly became hateful to him.

"Let us go," he said. "Perhaps it is better that we rejoin the main
force."

Braxton Wyatt had his own opinion, but he was as willing as the others
to depart. He felt that on this expedition he would be safer with the
warriors all about him. He had saved his own rifle from the rush of the
herd, and putting it on his shoulder he fell in behind the chiefs.

The whole party started, but they found that although they had left an
evil place they had also begun an evil march. The owl, which the Indians
were quite sure contained the soul of some great dead warrior, f