At length even that yell ceased.

The watch-dogs quieted down and the perfect stillness which ensued could almost be felt.
Through Isaac's mind ran over and over again the same words.

His last night to live! His last night to live! He forced himself to think of other things.

He lay there in the darkness of his tent, but he was far away in thought, far away in the past with his mother and brothers before they had come to this bloodthirsty country.

His thoughts wandered to the days of his boyhood when he used to drive the sows to the pasture on the hillside, and in his dreamy, disordered fancy he was once more letting down the bars of the gate.
Then he was wading in the brook and whacking the green frogs with his stick.