"La-ha-hoo! la-ha-hoo!"
Far down the widening valley, and up the wild, picturesque ravine, rang
the strange but not unmusical call. It awoke the slumbering echoes of
the still place, and a hundred voices seemed to take up the cry, and
pass it on as from mouth to mouth. But the boy's quick ears were not to
be deceived by the mocking voices of the spirits of solitude, and
presently the call rang out again with greater clearness than before:
"La-ha-hoo!"
The boy stood with his head thrown back, his fair curls floating in the
mountain breeze, his blue eyes, clear and bright and keen as those of a
wild eaglet, fixed upon a craggy ridge on the opposite side of the
gorge, whilst his left hand was placed upon the collar of a huge
wolfhound who stood beside him, sniffing the wind and showing by every
tremulous movement his longing to be off and away, were it not for the
detaining hand of his young master.
The lad was very simply dressed in a tunic of soft, well-dressed
leather, upon the breast of which was stamped some device which might
have been the badge of his house. His active limbs were encased in the
same strong, yielding material, and the only thing about him which
seemed to indicate rank or birth was a belt with a richly-chased gold
clasp and a poniard with a jewelled hilt.
Far down the widening valley, and up the wild, picturesque ravine, rang
the strange but not unmusical call. It awoke the slumbering echoes of
the still place, and a hundred voices seemed to take up the cry, and
pass it on as from mouth to mouth. But the boy's quick ears were not to
be deceived by the mocking voices of the spirits of solitude, and
presently the call rang out again with greater clearness than before:
"La-ha-hoo!"
The boy stood with his head thrown back, his fair curls floating in the
mountain breeze, his blue eyes, clear and bright and keen as those of a
wild eaglet, fixed upon a craggy ridge on the opposite side of the
gorge, whilst his left hand was placed upon the collar of a huge
wolfhound who stood beside him, sniffing the wind and showing by every
tremulous movement his longing to be off and away, were it not for the
detaining hand of his young master.
The lad was very simply dressed in a tunic of soft, well-dressed
leather, upon the breast of which was stamped some device which might
have been the badge of his house. His active limbs were encased in the
same strong, yielding material, and the only thing about him which
seemed to indicate rank or birth was a belt with a richly-chased gold
clasp and a poniard with a jewelled hilt.
