He paused, listening intently.  In the silence, above the slight sound of the running water, I felt sure I could distinguish voices speaking not far distant.

“It ’s no place yere ter stay,” he whispered, his lips close at my ear.  “Reckon best thing we kin dew now is to find one o’ the sojers’ root-caves somewhar along the bank, an’ crawl in thar till daylight.  The Injuns ain’t so likely to bother us when the guards kin see ’em from the Fort.  They don’t want no out-’n’-out fuss, to my notion, till they kin git inter the stockade for good.  Creep ’long yere with me, sonny, an’ ’t won’t be far till I find a hole somewhar thet ’ll hide us fer awhile anyhow.”

We crawled slowly along, snake-fashion, at the edge of the river, for perhaps thirty feet, our movements hidden by the high and slightly overhanging bank at our left.  The night was so dark that Burns relied more upon feeling than sight to guide him.  At last he stopped suddenly.

“Here’s one o’ ’em,” he said.  “Crawl along in, sonny; thar’s lots o’ room after ye go a foot er two.”

It was the merest hole dug into the bank, roughly lined with irregular bits of rock, which opened out into quite a cellar about a yard from the surface.  The air within felt somewhat chill and damp, as I put my head cautiously down the narrow opening; but there seemed no cause for fear, and I crept nimbly forward, feeling my way as I advanced along the rude mud walls.  I could hear Burns behind me on his hands and knees, puffing slightly as he squeezed through the small aperture that led into the larger chamber.

I had advanced perhaps two yards without reaching the end of this odd underground apartment, when suddenly, and directly in my front, there sounded a deep, hollow, unearthly groan.  The sound was so terrifying that I stopped with chilled blood and beating heart, gripping my knife-hilt and peering forward into the dark as frightened as ever I was in my life.  I heard Burns gasp and half turn; then, before I could move, even had I dared venture such a thing, an instantaneous flash lit up the black interior.  I caught one confused glimpse of a huge object, topped with a head of tumbled hair, of two flapping wings stretching out upon either side, and then the impenetrable curtain of the dark hid everything once more.  Sweat bathed me in cold drops; nor could I have moved a limb to save my life.  Behind me Burns was muttering what might have been a prayer; when the thing groaned again, a hollow, awful moan, thrilling with agony, that sent me grovelling upon my face as nearly dead as one could well be and yet breathe and know.

CHAPTER XVI

“FRANCE WINS, MONSIEUR!”

For the moment, every muscle of my body seemed paralyzed.  I distinctly heard the creature moving in my direction, and I backed away violently, actuated only by the thought of instant escape into the open air.  But Burns blocked the solitary passage.