.

In its light the objects around him were more clearly revealed.
Apparently the riders were straggling to a rendezvous. There was no
haste. The terrible depression which had afflicted Ambrose since Nesis
had disappeared was dissipated by the imminence of a great event.

He lived in the moment. Out of the tail of his eye he observed
Watusk's mount, a lustrous black stallion, the finest piece of
horseflesh he had seen in the north.

Ambrose heard a confused murmur ahead. Rising over the edge of the
hill he saw its cause. A great body of horses was gathered close
together on the prairie, each with its rider standing at its head.

The animals jostled each other, bit and squealed, stamped their
forefeet, and tossed their manes. The men were silent. It made a
weird scene in the fading moonlight.

Men and horses partook of a ghostly quality; the faces nearest him
blank, oval patches, faintly phosphorescent, were like symbols of the
tragedy of mankind.

Watusk kept Ambrose at his side. Facing his men, he raised his hand
theatrically. They sprang to their saddles and, wheeling, set out over
the prairie. Gradually they lengthened out into single file.

Presently the leader came loping back, and the whole body rode around
Watusk and Ambrose in a vast circle. It was like an uncanny midnight
circus.

The riders maintained their silence. The only sounds were the thudding
of hoofs on turf and the shaking of the horsemen in their clothes.
Only one or two used saddles. The rifle-barrels caught dull gleams of
moonlight.

At another signal from Watusk they pulled up and, turning their horses'
heads toward the center, made as small a circle as their numbers could
squeeze into.

Watusk addressed Ambrose with a magniloquent air. "See my children,
white man! Brave as the white-face mountain bear! Swift as flying
duck! This only a few my men. Toward the setting sun I got so many
more wait my call.

"By the big lake I got 'nother great army. Let white men tak' care how
they treat us bad. To-morrow red man's day come. He got Watusk lead
him now. Watusk see through white man's bluff!"

It was impossible for Ambrose not to be impressed, ridiculous as
Watusk's harangue was. There were the men, not less than two
hundred--and twenty police to be attacked.

Watusk now rode around the circle, addressing his men in their own
tongue, singling out this man and that, and issuing instructions. It
was all received