Still we should have
heard a noise; for in a night like this, an oath of Hurry Harry's
would have echoed in the eastern hills like a clap of thunder."
"Hurry is sinful and thoughtless about his words, Judith," Hetty
meekly and sorrowfully answered.
"No - no; 'tis impossible the ark could be taken and I not hear
the noise. It is not an hour since I left it, and the whole time
I have been attentive to the smallest sound. And yet, it is not
easy to believe a father would willingly abandon his children!"
"Perhaps father has thought us in our cabin asleep, Judith, and
has moved away to go home. You know we often move the ark in the
night."
"This is true, Hetty, and it must be as you suppose. There is a
little more southern air than there was, and they have gone up the
lake -" Judith stopped, for, as the last word was on her tongue,
the scene was suddenly lighted, though only for a single instant,
by a flash. The crack of a rifle succeeded, and then followed the
roll of the echo along the eastern mountains. Almost at the same
moment a piercing female cry rose in the air in a prolonged shriek.
The awful stillness that succeeded was, if possible, more appalling
than the fierce and sudden interruption of the deep silence of
midnight.
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