e slight expanse of sky above was blue and clear, but
it was sombre and gloomy enough down in that black hollow, where we
made difficult progress amid loose bowlders.

Where this snake-like ravine widened out slightly we made choice for
our first camp. We reached there near the sunset hour, although the
sun itself had utterly vanished from our view long before, and we moved
forward amid a semi-darkness most depressing. On the spot selected the
towering wall of rock on our side of the little river overhung
sufficiently to form a comfortable shelter at its base. I had a goodly
supply of fresh pine boughs strewn so as to form a soft bed, while the
Puritan busied himself gathering together ample materials for a fire,
the reflected light of which caused the deep chasm where we rested to
appear more gloomy than before, while scurrying night clouds closed us
in as if imprisoned within a grave.

That evening was not devoted to much conversation. We were alike
wearied from our long tramp, heavy-hearted, and strangely depressed by
the desolate gloom of the rock cavern in which we lay. Even De Noyan
yielded to this spirit of brooding and, after a faint effort at forced
gayety, crept silently to his sleeping-place. The other two were not
long in following him. I was thus left alone to keep the first watch
of the night. Four lonelier, more miserable hours I do not remember
serving at the call of duty. The round moon crept slowly through the
black sky, until its soft, silvery beams rested, brighter than daylight
had been in that gorge, in glowing radiance along the surface of the
smooth, gleaming wall opposite, yet merely succeeded in rendering more
weird and uncanny the sombre desolation. The night wind arose, causing
the shadows of clinging pines to sway back and forth like spectral
figures, while a solemn silence, awesome in its intensity, brooded over
all, broken only by the noise of tumbling water, with occasional
rasping of boughs against the face of the cliff. The fire died away
into a few red embers, occasionally fanned into uncertain flame by
breaths of air sucked up the gorge. By the time my guard ended I was
so thoroughly unstrung that each flitting glimpse of deeper shadow
tempted me to fire.

It was at midnight, or as close to that hour as I was capable of
judging, when I aroused De Noyan and crawled into his place on the bed
of boughs. I lay there watching him a brief space, as he walked over
to the stre