It was a note filled with complaint and mourning, and it told of the desolation that overspread a desolate world.
Robert knew now that the leader and his men were disturbed.

He could tell it by the anxious way in which they watched the woods, and, gliding farther around the circle, he sent forth the cry a third time.

He was quite sure that he had made a further increase in its desolation and menace, and he saw the swart leader and his men draw together as if they were afraid.
The owl was not the only trick in Robert's trade.

His ambition took a wide sweep and fancy was fertile.

He had aroused in these men the fear of the supernatural, a dread that the ghosts of those whom they had murdered had come back to haunt or punish them.