th their stalking, and watched you with
their eyes; something which, in the old darkness of the world, had spilt
itself into fur and feathers, and moved with wings or feet. It was
perhaps not exactly a comfortable thought; yet for all that, it need not
necessarily be a bad Thing. On the contrary, it might even do you good,
if you could get close enough to it, and learn not to be afraid.

Darker and darker under the trees! At last, so dark that you could not
tell them by their shape. Yet to Dusty Star the shape did not matter,
since he could feel them by their smell. Now it was hemlock; now balsam
fir. And now he caught black poplar; and again the scent was birch. And
so he went his way less by sight than feeling,--_seeing_ things by their
smell.

At length he came to a part of the forest so thick with undergrowth and
creepers, that further progress in that direction was impossible in the
dark. He decided to camp here for the night. So when he had found a
suitable spot in which to make his couch, he lay down and almost
immediately fell fast asleep.

When he awoke, dawn had already began to break, and he could distinguish
the shapes of the trees. He sat up and looked about him. He felt that
none of his enemies would track him here. Only keen noses of beasts
might scent him, and they, as likely as not, would give him a wide
berth. He lay quiet in the intense morning stillness, feeling full of
thankfulness that he was once more free. If only he could make his way
home in safety, and find Kiopo there to meet him, happiness would come
to him again. He could not believe that Kiopo had been killed. He
remembered what Kitsomax had said. If the wolf had met his death as well
as the Indian, surely she would have mentioned both? The recollection
comforted him, as he got up and once more started on his way.

Though the country he was passing through was utterly strange to him, he
knew that the river must be somewhere to the north-east, and that if he
wished to strike the shores of the great lake, he must keep to the
neighbourhood of the river for a guide. He pushed on rapidly, and, when
the sun was half-way towards noon, saw with relief the light on the
water between the trees. But now, owing to the swampy nature of the
ground, the going was not so good, and he found it necessary to go back
continually into the woods in order to travel on firmer ground. Evening
was already drawing on before he heard the roar of the rapids in the