ht be looking at me as I moved about town. I thought
I saw eyes peering at me, sometimes of one kind, sometimes of another,
out of every window, through every crack, over every roof, around
every corner, from behind every chimney; even the tops of the freshly
made snowbanks, blown over like hoods, were not free from them; and
when I looked out on the prairie I expected to see something coming
to catch me. I could scarce tell if I were more afraid on top of the
drifts or under them in my tunnels, for here I constantly expected to
meet something, or look back and see eyes. I think the loneliness and
the strain of the expected robbers must have half turned my mind. If I
had known what to look for and dread I think I should not have cared
so much, but, not knowing, I imagined everything and became more
terrified about I knew not what than were the Indians at my pumpkin
lantern. Sometimes I was sorry that I had driven the Indians away; and
there were times when I thought I should be glad to have the Pike gang
come, just for company.

Three days after the buffalo hunt, in the night, I thought the gang
had come indeed; I was not more frightened at any time while I was at
Track's End than I was that night. I had gone to bed as usual in the
empty building, taking in my drawbridge and closing both windows
behind me. The northwest wind had died away at sundown, and the night
was still and the sky becoming cloudy. I looked for an east wind the
next day and probably snow later.

What hour I woke up I knew not, but it must have been about midnight.
I know I awoke gradually, because I had a long dream before doing so.
I thought a giant was shouting at me from a grove of green trees on a
hillside; it kept up for a long time, deep, hoarse shouts which fairly
shook the earth; I could not see him, but seemed to know what he was.
I was not frightened, but stood in a meadow listening. Then there was
a crash of a tree falling on the hillside, and the giant's shouts came
twice as loud, and I awoke and fought the bed-clothes off my head and
knew it was Kaiser barking.

At first this did not startle me, since he often barked in the hotel
at night, sometimes at the wolves, and other times, I had reason to
think, at the thing which prowled in the night. The next instant I
realized that his barks were much louder and that he was nearer. I
started up and saw that a dull, flickering light was coming through
the cracks in the boards over the windo