ied his horse. When the girls got off he
haltered their horses also.

"Stick close to me an' put your feet down easy," he whispered. How tall
and dark he loomed in the fading light! Helen thrilled, as she had often
of late, at the strange, potential force of the man. Stepping softly,
without the least sound, Dale entered this straggly bit of woods, which
appeared to have narrow byways and nooks. Then presently he came to
the top of a well-wooded slope, dark as pitch, apparently. But as Helen
followed she perceived the trees, and they were thin dwarf spruce,
partly dead. The slope was soft and springy, easy to step upon without
noise. Dale went so cautiously that Helen could not hear him, and
sometimes in the gloom she could not see him. Then the chill thrills ran
over her. Bo kept holding on to Helen, which fact hampered Helen as
well as worked somewhat to disprove Bo's boast. At last level ground was
reached. Helen made out a light-gray background crossed by black bars.
Another glance showed this to be the dark tree-trunks against the open
park.

Dale halted, and with a touch brought Helen to a straining pause. He was
listening. It seemed wonderful to watch him bend his head and stand as
silent and motionless as one of the dark trees.

"He's not there yet," Dale whispered, and he stepped forward very
slowly. Helen and Bo began to come up against thin dead branches that
were invisible and then cracked. Then Dale knelt down, seemed to melt
into the ground.

"You'll have to crawl," he whispered.

How strange and thrilling that was for Helen, and hard work! The ground
bore twigs and dead branches, which had to be carefully crawled over;
and lying flat, as was necessary, it took prodigious effort to drag her
body inch by inch. Like a huge snake, Dale wormed his way along.

Gradually the wood lightened. They were nearing the edge of the park.
Helen now saw a strip of open with a high, black wall of spruce beyond.
The afterglow flashed or changed, like a dimming northern light, and
then failed. Dale crawled on farther to halt at length between two
tree-trunks at the edge of the wood.

"Come up beside me," he whispered.

Helen crawled on, and presently Bo was beside her panting, with pale
face and great, staring eyes, plain to be seen in the wan light.

"Moon's comin' up. We're just in time. The old grizzly's not there yet,
but I see coyotes. Look."

Dale pointed across the open neck of park to a dim blurred patch