ve miles away;
but--suddenly I realized I was not clear! I was followed.

Somebody else on snowshoes had shot out of Thompson's tunnel, over the
crackling shore ice on to the snow and frazil; was up to me, close
behind me.

"Run, Nicky," shrieked Paulette's voice. "_Run!_"

I slewed my head around and saw her, running behind me!

CHAPTER XVIII

LAC TREMBLANT

"Across the ice that never froze
The snow that never bore,
My love ran out to follow me--
To follow to the shore."

_The Day the World Went Mad._

It may be true that I swore aloud; but what I meant by it was more like
praying. Over me was the blue winter sky and the gold sun; under me the
treacherous spread of the lake that was no lake, that one misstep might
send me through, to God knew what hideous depth of unfrozen water, or
bare, bone-shattering stone; behind me were Macartney and Macartney's
men; and close up to me, nearer every second, my Paulette, my dream girl
who had never been mine. There was nothing to do for both of us but to
keep on crossing Lac Tremblant. Missteps might be death, but turning
back was worse--for her, anyway.

I yelled, "Keep wide! Get abreast of me--don't take any direction you
don't see me take. But _keep wide_!" Because what held one of us would
never hold two, and behind me, running in my tracks----Well, even a
light girl would not run long!

Paulette only screamed, "Yes. Keep on! They're coming!" She may have
needed her breath, I don't know; but she didn't run like it. She ran
like a deer, with my own flat, heel-dragging stride on the snowshoes I
had not thought she knew how to use. One more shot came after us. I
yelled again to her to keep wide and heard her sheer off a little to
obey me; but she still ran behind me. God knows I didn't realize, till
afterwards, that it was to keep Macartney from shooting me. I didn't
even wonder why Collins and Dunn weren't firing into the brown of
Macartney's men with Marcia's rifle and popgun. I was too busy watching
the snow surfaces before me.

There was a difference in them. I can't explain what, but a difference
between where there was water to buoy the snow, and where it lay on
shell ice. The open black holes where there was nothing at all any one
could see, and I didn't worry over them. I only knew we must run over
water, or the light stuff under us would let us through. I kept moving
my hand in infinitesimal signals to Paulette, and God kno