258 A MOONLIGHT WALK. 



pole it against the stream for any considerable distance. 

 The further therefore he advanced the more cautious 

 became his movements. Frequently he paused to 

 listen; but nothing broke the silence of the slumbering 

 woods except the rush of the river past the banks, or 

 the occasional sighing of the wind along the tree 

 tops. 



For several hours the old trapper continued his 

 search, following the sinuosities of the river, to which 

 he now approached closely, being concealed by the 

 dense shadow of the woods, which rendered him quite 

 invisible at the distance of even a few yards. He had 

 therefore little apprehension of being observed, and 

 walked as quickly forward as the nature of the ground 

 would permit. 



The first part of the night had passed, and now the 

 pale light of the moon stole from between the rifted 

 clouds, and gleamed on gray tree trunk and shimmering 

 river with ghostly whiteness, necessitating greater care 

 on the part of the trapper in concealing himself from 

 the observation of any prowler in advance. 



At the place where the hunter now found himself, 

 the trees receded somewhat from the water, and between 

 them and the stream lay a level space, encumbered 

 here and there with piles of drift-timber or flood-wrack 

 left by the subsidence of the river. 



While Jake debated whether to venture across this 

 or to skirt it within the shelter of the timber, an Indian 

 suddenly appeared from behind a heap of drift-wood 



