Here slink the Cat-People under a moon which is hidden forever by this matted forest roof.

This is the Dark Empire, O Loskiel! Behold!" A slight shudder chilled me, but I said calmly enough: "Where lies Catharines-town, O Sagamore ?" "This thick, dark stream runs through it." "Through Catharines-town ?" "Aye." "And then ?" "Along the vast chain of inland seas--first into the Lake of the Senecas, then to that of the Cayugas, fed by Owasco, by Onondaga, by Oneida, until it is called Oswego, and flows north by the great fort into the sea Ontario." "And where lies Catharines-town ?" "Nine miles beyond us, northward." "And the trail ?" "None, Loskiel, save for the maze of game trails where long leaps are made from tussock to swale, from root to rotting log across black pools of mud, and quivering quicksands whose depths are white as snow under the skin of mud, set with tarnished rainbow bubbles." "But--those who come after us, Mayaro! The army--the wagons, horses, artillery, cattle--nay, the men themselves! How are they to pass ?" He pointed east, then west: "For six miles, flanking this swamp, run ridges of high hills northward.

By these must the army march to Catharines-town, the pioneers opening a road for the artillery.

This you shall make plain to Boyd presently, for he must march that way, marking plain the trail north on the eastern ridge of hills, then west.
Thus shall Boyd move to cut off Amochol from the lake, while you and I and the Oneidas and the Yellow Moth must thread this swamp and comb it clean to head him from the rivers south of us." "Is there a path along the ridge ?" "No path, Loskiel.

So Boyd shall march by compass, slowly, seeking over the level way, and open woods, with the artillery and wagons ever in his thoughts.