to the wilderness, had accepted the assurances and explanations of
Rod and Wabigoon. Wabi, half-bred in the wild, felt alarm only in the
sense of physical peril. It was different with the white youth. What
is there in civilization that sends the chill of terror to one's heart
more quickly than the presence of a human being who has gone mad? And
this madman was at large! At that very instant he might be listening
to their breathing and their whispered words half a dozen feet away;
any moment might see the blackness take form and the terrible thing
hurl itself at their throats. Rod, unlike Wabigoon, knew that the
powers of this strange creature of the chasm were greater than their
own, that it could travel with the swiftness and silence of an animal
through the darkness, that perhaps it could smell them and feel their
presence as it passed on its way to the plain. He was anxious now to
hear the cry again. What was the meaning of this silence? Was the
madman already conscious of their presence? Was he creeping upon them
at that moment, as still as the black shadows that shut in their
vision? His mind was working in such vivid imaginings that he was
startled when Wabi prodded him gently in the side.

"Look over there--across the chasm," he whispered. "See that glow on
the mountain wall?"

"The moon!" replied Rod.

"Yes. I've been watching it, and it's creeping down and down. The
moon is going to swing across this break in the mountains. In fifteen
minutes we shall be able to see."

"It won't swing across so much as it will come up in line with us,"
replied Rod. "Watch how that light is lengthening! We shall be able to
see for several hours."

He started to rise to his feet but fell back with an astonished cry.
For a third time there came the mad hunter's scream, this time far
above and beyond them, floating down from the distance of the moon-lit
plain!

"He passed us!" exclaimed Wabi. "He passed us--and we didn't hear
him!" He leaped to his feet and his voice rose excitedly until it rang
in a hundred echoes between the chasm walls. "He passed us, and we
didn't hear him!"

Mukoki's voice came strangely from out of the gloom.

"No man do that! No man--no man--"

"Hush!" commanded Rod. "Now is our time, boys! Quick, get everything
to the creek. He's half a mile out on the plain and we can get away
before he comes back. I'd rather risk a few rocks than another one of
his golden bullets!"

"So had I!" cried Wabi.