It seemed that something was near.

There was a solemnity in the air.

Overhead an excited crow crossed and recrossed the thin strip of high blue sky.
Above the crow a buzzard swung in slow, repeated circles, though not joined by any of its sombre brotherhood.

Mystery, expectation, dread, sat upon this scene.

The two men rode with hands upon their pistols and leaning forward to see that which they felt must now be near.
They turned an angle of the valley, and came out upon a little flat among the trees.