d equal, cleaving the thickets, leaping gullies, and racing
across the open. The lake on his right came nearer and nearer, but he
was rapidly approaching the northern end, and he knew that he would pass
it before the band pursuing in that quarter could close in upon him.

Now the critical time came and he increased his speed to the utmost,
running through a thicket, passing the extreme northern curve of the
lake, and entering a wood where only firm ground lay before him. The
great obstacle was passed and he felt a mighty surge of triumph. He was
for the time being primitive and wild, like the warriors who pursued
him, thinking as they thought, and acting as they acted. Feeling now
that he was victorious anew, he raised his voice and sent forth once
more that tremendous thrilling cry, a compound of triumph, defiance and
mockery. Yells of disappointment came from the deep woods behind him,
and to hear them gave him all the satisfaction he had anticipated.

He kept a steady course toward the east, not running so fast as before,
but maintaining a steady pace, nevertheless. As he ran he began to think
now of hiding his trail, not in such a manner that it could be lost
permanently, that being impossible, but long enough for him to take
rest. However great one's natural powers might be and however severely
and often one might have been hardened in the fire, one could not run on
forever. He must lie down in the forest by and by, and the time would
come, too, when he must sleep.

He glanced up at the sun and saw that the day would not last more than
two hours longer. There were no clouds and the night was likely to be
bright, furnishing enough light for the warriors to find an ordinary
trail, and willing to delude them now he began to take pains to make his
own trail one that was not ordinary. He resorted to all the usual forest
devices, walking on hard ground, stones and fallen trees, and wading in
water whenever he came to it, methods that he knew would merely delay
the warriors, but that could not baffle them long.

He did not hear the bands signaling again and he surmised that the one
on the south would pass around the southern end of the lake, reuniting
with the other as soon afterward as possible. Nevertheless he curved off
in that direction, and, sinking now to a long walk, he went steadily
ahead, until the great sun went down in a sea of gold behind the forest
and night threw a dusky veil over the wilderness. Then he s