oked out upon the world through eyes which burned with
the light of fever. His movements were slow, deliberate. Only his eyes
betrayed his condition, telling a tale of a strange new life born within
him.

He moved off into the woods, striking down the slope towards the river.
He was gone some time; and when he returned his face was cleaned, and a
bandage was tied about it. The wound in his shoulder was not severe.

He came none too soon, for, as he neared the clearing, he heard a
succession of deep-toned wolf-howls. As he broke the forest fringe, he
saw two great timber-wolves steal swiftly back to the depths whence they
had just emerged.

Nick cursed them under his breath. Then he went to his brother's side.
Here he paused, and, after a moment of mental struggle, stooped and
lifted the corpse upon his unwounded shoulder. Then with his gruesome
freight he plunged into the forest.

He held the body firmly but tenderly, and walked as rapidly as his
burden permitted. He often talked to himself as he went, like a man in
deep thought and stirred by violent emotions. Sometimes he slowed his
gait, and, at others, he almost ran. His thoughts influenced him
strangely.

Once he set his burden down and rested. The forest was getting dark
about him, but it suited his mood; it formed a background for his gloomy
thoughts. And, while he rested, he fell to talking as though Ralph were
living, and merely rested with him. He talked and answered himself, and,
later, leaned over his dead, crooning like some woman over her child.
The time passed. Again he rose, and once more shouldering the body, now
stiff and cold, hastened on.

And as the evening shadows gathered, and the forest gloom deepened,
there came the sound of movement about him. At intervals wolfish throats
were opened and the dismal forest cries echoed and reechoed in the
hollow shadows.

His burden grew heavier. His mind suffered, and his nerves were tense as
the wires of a musical instrument. Every jolt found an echoing note upon
them, and each note so struck caused him exquisite pain. And now, too,
the wolves grew bolder; the scent of blood was in the air and taunted
their hungry bellies till they began to lose their fear of the man.

Nick stopped and looked about him. The evening shadows were fast closing
in. In the gloom he saw eyes looking out upon him, eyes in pairs, like
coals of fire surrounded by dark, lank, shadowy forms. One shadow stood
out more distinctly