of pain, Donald became aware that the sun was
again risen after the ages of night, for he felt on the back of
his hand, which he experimentally exposed, the hot-and-cold mottling
from the rays. The renewed opportunity for action after the passive
misery of the night heartened him for a brief interval, and he
bestirred himself eagerly with preparations for the day. First of
all, he must have chips of bark for a fire, in order to make ready
his breakfast. He had already, the night before, exhausted the
supply within reach on the tree at hand, so another source of supply
must be sought Forthwith, on hands and knees, with bared knife in
his clutch, he crawled blindly until he found another tree. Circling
about it, with swift strokes of the knife, he quickly had an ample
store of fuel for his need. Gathering this up, he started back...

Walking forward falteringly, with the little load of bark held to
his breast, Donald realized in a shock of alarm that he must have
passed beyond the tree at the foot of which his pack was lying. In
panic anxiety, he forced his lids apart, and strove to compel sight.
It was in vain. A prismatic blur reeled before him. He could not
distinguish sky from snow, or sun from tree. Only, the pain suddenly
leaped with new life and flooded the useless eyeballs with stinging
tears. The futility of his effort sickened the man. But, by a mighty
exercise of will, he thrust down his emotion, and set himself
doggedly to the task of finding a way back. To this end, he knelt
down, and felt the smooth surface of the snow with bare fingers
for some trace of his footsteps. There was none. The firm crust
had carried him without strain. There was no least abrasion of the
frozen surface to afford him a clew to his own trail. He strove
to reason concerning the direction of his movements, but quickly
abandoned the attempt as altogether baffling. In his circling about
the tree from which he had garnered fuel, he had neglected to hold
his bearings in relation to the camp. In setting off on his return,
he might have moved in any one of the three hundred and sixty
degrees of the circle. For that matter, he could not now even find
his way back to the tree from which he had got the chips. Despite
his brave resolve, the afflicted man found himself powerless then
to devise any scheme of action to be pursued. In this inability,
he left himself exposed to utter despair, and, for the first time
in all his grisly journey, such