tern horses fast," he reflected. "Dey don't vant trafel dis
road back in dark, sure ting, to break dere necks. Dey vant make qvick
vork. But I ban goin' some, too, you bet."

He was taking man's eternal pleasure in swift motion, yet the anxiety
remained with him that he might not catch up with them before they
arrived. He knew that nothing could take place if he were there a
minute before them. But if he was a minute late, what then? When this
idea recurred, his face would take on its grim expression, the look
wherewith Vikings once struck terror among their enemies. He hoped for
the sake of that crowd that he might not be late, as well as for the
good of his friend, for he would crush them, the men at any rate, and
send the women trudging home, wishing they had never been born.

In him the two individualities that make up nearly every human being
swung and seesawed. The kind-hearted, helpful, considerate man kept on
surging upward, in the trust that his arrival would avert all trouble.
Then this phase of his being would pass off and the great primal
creature would take its place and come uppermost, with lustful ideas
of vengeance, visions in which everything was tinged with red, and
then his great voice would ring out in the still woods and the dogs
would pull desperately, with never a pause, and the toboggan would
slither and slide and groan, and the crunching snow seemed to
complain, and the masses of snow suspended to great hemlocks and firs
dropped down suddenly, with thuds that were like the echoes of great
smiting clubs.

When again he ran beside the dogs, in a long pull uphill, the sense of
personal effort comforted him. He was doing something. Once the toe of
one of his snowshoes caught in the snaky root of a big spruce and he
fell ponderously, without a word, and picked himself up again. Dimly
he was conscious that it had injured him a little, but he scarcely
felt it. It was like some hurt received in the heat and passion of
battle, that a man never really feels till the excitement has passed.
His team had kept on, galloping fast, but he never called to them,
knowing that harder ground would presently slow them. And he ran on,
his great limbs appearing to possess the strength of machinery wrought
of steel and iron, while his enormous chest hoarsely drew in and cast
forth great clouds. But he was not working beyond his power, merely
getting the best he knew out of the thews that made him more efficient
than