e heard no sound, save that of the water grumbling and surging at our
feet. We answered in the negative. "You hear it not? Ha, ha, ha!
where are your ears? It is ringing in mine. All day I have heard it.
Listen! there it is again!"

"She's a mockin' us," muttered my companion; "thar ain't no soun' in
partickler."

"No? we cannot hear it; you are mocking us," I rejoined, addressing
myself to the brown-skinned, sibyl. "Ha! ha! ha! It is _it_ that is
mocking you. It mocks you, and yet it is not the mocking-bird. It is
not the dove cooing gently to his mate, nor the screaming of the owl.
It is the cuckoo that mocks you! ha! ha! the cuckoo! Now, do you hear
it, White Eagle? Do _you_ hear it, proud slayer of red panthers? Ha!
it mocks you both!"

"Oh! bother, girl!" exclaimed. Wingrove in a vexed tone; "ye're a
talkin' nonsense."

"Truth, White Eagle--truth! the black snake has been in your nest; and
yours too, slayer of panthers! He has wound himself around your pretty
birds, and borne them away in his coils--away over the great desert
plains--away to the Big Lake! Ha, ha, ha! In the desert, he will
defile them. In the waters of the lake, he will drown them--ha, ha,
ha!"

"Them's yur words o' comfort, air they?" cried Wingrove, exasperated to
a pitch of fury. "Durned if I'll bar sech talk! I won't stan' it any
longer. Clar out now! We want no croakin' raven hyar. Clar out! or--"

He was not permitted to finish the threat. I saw the girl suddenly drop
down from her position on the fence, and glide behind the trunk of a
tree. Almost at the same instant a light gleamed along the bank--which
might have been mistaken for a flash of lightning, had it not been
followed instantaneously by a quick crack--easily recognisable as the
report of a pistol! I waited not to witness the effect; but rushed
towards the tree--with the design of intercepting the Indian. The blue
smoke lingering in the damp air, hindered me from seeing the movements
of the girl; but, hurrying onward, I clambered over the fence. Once on
the other side, I was beyond the cloud, and could command a view for a
score of yards or so around me; but, in that circuit, no human form was
to be seen! Beyond it, however, I heard the vengeful, scornful, laugh,
pealing its unearthly echoes through the columned aisles of the forest!

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.

THE HOROLOGE OF THE DEAD HORSE.

With inquiring eye and anxious heart, I turned towar