ajority were involved in doubt, and resolved to forget the incident as
the most comfortable way of disposing of it, some there were who had
cracked the conundrum, as was evident from their knowing deportment, their
desire to avoid conversation on this topic, and finally, a disposition,
plainly manifested, to convert the remainder of the afternoon into a
holiday season.

As the twilight hour approached, stables were visited, trappings placed in
readiness, and all those indispensables of a scout's toilet which might
be performed in secrecy, executed. These preparations required brief time,
and within an hour after night had fallen, steeds were being caparisoned,
riders were mounting in hot haste and moving off by clandestine routes,
the roads were filling with cavalcades of armed men, who seemed bent on
some undertaking of "pith and moment;" and all these movements proceeding
with such secrecy that even the watch-dogs of the vicinity, though vaguely
notified of the affair, hesitated to interfere. Though moving by different
routes, the various squadrons seemed tending to a common rendezvous
(located at a point on the outskirts of the settlement), a fact which was
made further apparent by the constant recruits which were being added to
each, at points where the highway was intersected by country-roads and
by-paths.

Approaching a dense forest, a sound resembling the hooting of an owl was
heard, and, turning their horses' heads in the direction whence it
proceeded, the various companies, as yet unorganized, galloped forward.
The Grand Cyclops of Den No. 5, Realm No. 3, accompanied by two of his
faithful Night-Hawks (scouts of the body), had been on the ground in
advance of his most punctual followers, and when the magic circle had been
formed, and the password circulated, that officer presented himself in
their midst, and by the use of a monosyllable, whose signification was
understood by all, indicated that the council-fires would not be lighted.
Nothing was added, and no word spoken in reply; but so thoroughly had his
full meaning been anticipated, that, within thirty minutes from the time
this vague proclamation was issued, the weird brotherhood had dispersed,
and, in full raiding costume and bearing aloft the banners of the order,
were awaiting the commands of their trusted leader at a point two miles
distant. The command moved in obedience to signs, and on this occasion,
notified by a signal which must have been unintel