A moment later a cry which thrilled every nerve came from a far point in the dark background.
It was the scalp yell, the most terrible of all Indian cries, long, high-pitched, and quavering, having in it something of the barking howl of the wolf and the fiendish shriek of a murderous maniac.

The warriors instantly took it up, and gave it back in a gigantic chorus.
A ghastly figure bounded into the circle of the firelight.

It was that of a woman, middle-aged, tall and powerful, naked to the waist, her body covered with red and black paint, her long black hair hanging in a loose cloud down her back.

She held a fresh scalp, taken from a white head, aloft in either band.

It was Catharine Montour, and it was she who had first emitted the scalp yell.