The air was filled with the brands of the beacon, and a heavy darkness succeeded, not unlike that of the appalling instant, when the last rays of the sun are excluded by the intervening mass of the moon.
A yell of triumph burst from the savages in their turn, and was rather accompanied than followed by a long, loud whine from Hector.
In an instant the old man was between the horses of Middleton and Paul, extending a hand to the bridle of each, in order to check the impatience of their riders.
"Softly, softly," he whispered, "their eyes are as marvellously shut for the minute, as if the Lord had stricken them blind; but their ears are open.

Softly, softly; for fifty rods, at least, we must move no faster than a walk." The five minutes of doubt that succeeded appeared like an age to all but the trapper.

As their sight was gradually restored, it seemed to each that the momentary gloom, which followed the extinction of the beacon, was to be replaced by as broad a light as that of noon-day.

Gradually the old man, however, suffered the animals to quicken their steps, until they had gained the centre of one of the prairie bottoms.

Then laughing in his quiet manner he released the reins and said-- "Now, let them give play to their legs; but keep on the old fog to deaden the sounds." It is needless to say how cheerfully he was obeyed.