There was no sound other than this moaning of the wind through the forest and the muffled beating of the pony’s feet on the leaf-covered path.  Once a great owl flew across the dark way with a deadened beating of his heavy wings.  Again wolves howled, but so far in the distance that the sound came as the faintest echo.  A stronger gust of the fitful wind filled the forest with the sulphurous vapors arising from the evaporating furnaces.  A moment more, and the vivid glare of the fires flared luridly through the wild tangle of the undergrowth.  Against this red glare many black shadows—­the dark forms of the firemen—­could now be indistinctly seen moving like evil spirits around the smoking, flaming pits.

It was a wild, strange sight, wild and strange enough to fire a cooler fancy than David’s.  He forgot his errand, forgot the money, forgot where he was—­everything but the romance of the scene which had taken him captive.  Every nerve in his tense young body was strung like the cord of a harp; his young heart was beating as if a heavy hammer swung in his breast.  And then, without so much as the warning rustle of a leaf or a sound more alarming than the sigh of the wind, two blurred black shapes burst out of the forest upon him.

V

ON THE WILDERNESS ROAD

The pony fell back almost to his haunches before the boy could draw the reins.  The two horses recoiled with equal suddenness and violence.  An unexpected encounter with the unknown in the darkness filled even the dumb brutes with alarm, and brute and human alike had reason to be alarmed; for this time and this place—­stamped in blood on history—­marked the very height and centre of the reign of terror on the Wilderness Road.

The boy strained his terrified gaze through the dark, but he could see nothing except those vague, black forms of two horsemen, looming large and threatening against the lurid glow of the furnace fires which faintly lit the forest.  The men and their horses looked like monstrous creatures, half human and half beast, both as silent and motionless as himself.  He felt that they also were listening and watching in tense waiting as he waited and watched, hearing only the frightened panting of the horses and the faint rustle of the sable leaves overhead.  And so all held for an instant, which seemed endless, till a sudden gust of wind swung the boughs and sent the glare of the furnace flames far and high through the forest.  The vivid flash came and went like lightning, but it lasted long enough for the boy to recognize one of the black shapes.

“Father!” he cried.  “Father Orin!”

“Bless my soul—­it’s young David!” exclaimed the priest.

There was as much relief in his tone as in the boy’s, and he turned hastily to the horseman at his side.

“Doctor, this is a young friend of mine—­a member of Judge Knox’s family.  You have heard of the judge.  And, David, this is Doctor Colbert.  You, no doubt, have heard of him.”