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 owl's 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 away. I listened 



