and a person passing through it with caution could not be
observed from any great distance. The partial lattice-work of its
leaves was rendered more complete by the tall flower-stalks of the
_altheas_, and other malvaceous plants that shared the ground with the
palmettos.

Directing ourselves within the selvage of this rank vegetation, we
advanced with caution; and soon came opposite the place where we had
crossed the fence on the preceding night. At this point the woods
approached nearest to the house of Gayarre. As already stated, but one
field lay between, but it was nearly a mile in length. It was dead
level, however, and did not appear half so long. By going forward to
the fence, we could have seen the house at the opposite end, and very
distinctly.

I had no intention of gratifying my curiosity at that moment by such an
act, and was moving on, when a sound fell upon my ear that caused me
suddenly to halt, while a thrill of terror ran through my veins.

My companion caught me by the arm, and looked inquiringly in my face.

A caution to her to be silent was all the reply I could make; and,
leaning a little lower, so as to bring my ear nearer to the ground, I
listened.

The suspense was short. I heard the sound again. My first conjecture
was right. It was the "growl" of a hound!

There was no mistaking that prolonged and deep-toned note. I was too
fond a disciple of Saint Hubert not to recognise the bay of a long-eared
Molossian. Though distant and low, like the hum of a forest bee, I was
not deceived in the sound. It fell upon my ears with a terrible import!

And why terrible was the baying of a hound? To me above all others,
whose ears, attuned to the "tally ho!" and the "view hilloa!" regarded
these sounds as the sweetest of music? Why terrible? Ah! you must
think of the circumstances in which I was placed--you must think, too,
of the hours I spent with the snake-charmer--of the tales he told me in
that dark tree-cave--the stories of runaways, of sleuth-dogs, of
man-hunters, and "nigger-hunts,"--practices long thought to be confined
to Cuba, but which I found as rife upon the soil of Louisiana,--you must
think of all these, and then you will understand why I trembled at the
distant baying of a hound.

The howl I heard was still very distant. It came from the direction of
Gayarre's house. It broke forth at intervals. It was not like the
utterance of a hound upon the trail, but that of dogs