the river, at a point five miles below the
swamp line at which their road had intersected the bottom, a halt was
called, and the company sat peering into the darkness, for the first time
doubtful of their enterprise, when lo! within ten feet of the rearmost
file a welcome sound broke the stillness--at first low and doubtful, but
gaining in volume and flowing into blended notes--one--two--three--and
then a stunning, Wagnerian chorus, that lifted every horseman from his
stirrups, and sent the wood echoes rolling in sonorous waves along the
breast of the forest. A loud hurrah from the hunters attested their equal
joy, and hue and cry being joined, the panic of pursuit began. Straight up
the river bank the roaring pack held on their course, not once veering to
the right nor left, nor never slackening speed, and timid horsemen, that
erst had shivered if their steeds but stumbled in the darkness, now rode
abreast of the panting "leader," swelling the volume of sound with their
loud halloos, and leaping branch and inlet sound with the agility of the
frightened deer that sped before. Even the "Ketch," usually sedate and
disallowing confidences, had been momentarily thawed by the all-pervading
enthusiasm, and joining the pack just where the fun grew furious, howled a
dismal accompaniment to the cheering notes of the chase. On, on, into the
darkness beyond, sped the tempest of pursuit--now wedged into narrow
passes and involved in a hundred confused knots, now unravelling on the
open plains beyond and flowing on in currents bold and free as those that
kissed the shore beneath them, now leaping brake and fell, now skirting
hazardous banks, now hugging obtrusive shores, and hark! at a sharp signal
from the "leader" all sounds are hushed,--followed by a plunging boom,
and, churned into a thousand eddies, the bold Ocmulgee supports the rout
of panting men and beasts, who have no sooner recovered from the chilling
baptism than each bends forward in a mad struggle to reach first the
yonder shore and herald this clamorous invasion to its phantoms of
darkness. But so close on the heels of the dripping "leader" pressed the
frantic crew--who owed him fealty come life or death--that his opening
chorus was echoed by a hundred lesser sounds that were not echoes, and
with a mighty effort the panting "Ketch," leaping sheer from the waves to
the upper bank, was not too late with his base variation. And now the wild
pursuit is begun anew, for the ta