The whole sight intoxicated me.

I might dream of horrors in the low coast forests among their swampy creeks, but in that clear high world of the hills I believed lay safety.

I could have gazed at them for hours, but Shalah would permit of no delay.

He hurried us across the open meadows, and would not relax his pace till we were on a low wooded ridge with the young waters of the Rapidan running in a shallow vale beneath.
Here we halted in a thick clump of cedars, while he and Ringan went forward to spy out the land.

In that green darkness, save by folk travelling along the ridge, we could not be detected, and I knew enough of Indian ways to believe that any large party would keep the stream sides.