ld not stop. I was as wide awake as a codfish; the bed
was comfortable, too comfortable, but tired though I was I felt no
inclination to sleep. I thought it was the strangeness of my
surroundings which kept me tossing from side to side, but I soon
realized that the trouble was to be found in the fact that for months I
had only had the sky for my roof, never using our tents or open faced
shack except in bad weather; but here, the ornamented tester of the bed
and the ceiling itself seemed to be resting on my chest; in spite of the
wide open windows the room seemed stuffy and oppressive. I felt as if I
would suffocate.

Twice I got up and sat by the open window and gazed out at the black
landscape. The sky was cloudy and there were no stars; this combined
with the pine trees about the ranch house made the darkness so black and
thick that it seemed as if one might cut it in chunks, with a knife. The
air felt good to breathe but I did not propose to sit by the window all
night so at last I arose, put moccasins on my feet and, taking my
blankets with me, stole stealthily down the stairs, opened the front
door and made my bed on the floor of the broad piazza. I had not
forgotten the warning to keep indoors, but I thought I would rather risk
the wolves than to smother all night.

In the darkness I discovered another occupant of the piazza also rolled
up in a blanket taken from a bed in the house. Feeling with my hands I
discovered that it was Big Pete. Comfortably settling myself in my
blanket I felt the breeze from the mountain blowing over my face and
through my hair, and it soothed me until I dropped off into gentle
slumber; but during the months I had been sleeping in the open I had
learned the art, as the saying is, of sleeping with one eye open. In
this case, however, if the eye had really been wide open it could have
seen nothing because of the darkness, but the darkness did not interfere
with my ability to hear, and after I had been sleeping awhile I found
myself suddenly sitting bolt upright in my blankets with beads of
perspiration on my forehead and that terrible sensation of horror which
one experiences in a nightmare. I knew that I had heard something, but
what?

The oppressive silence of the wilderness made the valley appear as if
Nature was holding her breath for a moment before giving voice to an
explosion of sound. I sensed impending disaster of some sort. What it
was I could not guess, but was convinced tha