52 SYLVAN SECRETS. 



far off, and the cry was so emphasized and 

 exaggerated by contrast with the environment 

 that its effect was indescribable. At first I 

 did not recognize it as an owFs voice, but 

 referred it to some wild beast, — a panther, 

 perhaps,— and put myself on the defensive. 

 During the years that I was a soldier I was 

 never half so frightened in fight as I was by 

 that sound. Of course I pulled myself to- 

 gether in a moment, but the sudden impres- 

 sion was one never to be forgotten ; a pang 

 of awful terror whisked through me like an 

 electric shock. 



I suppose that every one who has sat all 

 alone in a forest by night has felt the pecul- 

 iar impression as of a dusky presence draw- 

 ing stealthily closer and closer to him. It is 

 imaginary, but no real thing could be more 

 clearly outlined to one's inner sense. For a 

 while after the owl's hideous notes had died 

 away in diminuendo echoes throughout the 

 forest caverns this breathless black spectre of 

 the night oppressed me, but I finally shook it 

 off. 



The next sound that I heard was that of a 

 body, perhaps a raccoon, passing down a 

 tree-trunk near by with a scratching and 

 scrambling that was a relief to my nerves, 

 for it was familiar and realistic. At length 

 the little animal reached the ground and 

 made its way to a puddle of water, where it 

 played for some time. Then something 

 frightened it, — it may have become suddenly 

 aware of my presence, — and it scampered far 

 away through the woods. Somehow its pre- 

 cipitate flight affected me strangely, and I 

 half imagined that some hideous being of the 

 darkness had approached from the depth of 

 the jungle and frightened it awa^. I IjstepecJ 



