where it had been for
many months, the smoke was curling out of the top into the calm sky, and
all around looked so unchanged that I could scarcely persuade myself
that in the interior was collected a band of malignant foes, who would
rejoice in my destruction. I looked but a few seconds, and then away I
went on my course. I walked on, sometimes breaking into a run where the
snow was harder and would allow it, till sunset, and then the stars came
out brightly in the firmament of heaven, and I was able to steer my
course with greater certainty even than in the daytime. I could not
think very much; but I did feel thankful that I had not yielded to the
temptation of drinking the spirits myself, when I had felt low and
almost hopeless. Had I done so, I should have destroyed the very means
presented for my deliverance. I got over the plain with tolerable ease,
for the sun had at times melted the snow, which when it froze again had
become hard and rough. As I ran on, however, I was trying to devise
some plan by which the Indians might be turned off my track. To
obliterate it, however, was hopeless, unless a heavy fall of snow should
come on, and even then the cunning rascals, by scraping away the snow at
intervals, were very likely to find me out.

It was nearly midnight, I calculated, when I felt that I must stop to
rest and take some food. I sat down on what I took to be a mound of
earth covered with snow. I ate a handful of rice and a little biscuit,
and chewed a piece of wolf's flesh, and felt somewhat revived. I should
have liked to have gone to sleep, but I dared not, even for a moment.
It would have been, had I given way to the feeling, the sleep of death.
I scarcely know why, but as I sat on the heap I struck the butt-end of
my rifle into the snow; it gave way. I found there was something
beneath it. With eager haste, for I remembered that every moment was
precious, I threw off the snow. The body of a man lay beneath. A
dreadful sensation came over me. It must be that of Obed, slaughtered,
perhaps, on his way to succour me; the idea almost overcame me; I
resisted, however, the feeling of despair, and roused myself up. I
threw off more of the snow; I could see, by the faint light of the moon,
that little more than a skeleton remained; the dress, however, was
there; it was that of a backwoodsman. With horrible eagerness, yet with
loathing, I examined the tattered clothes. I felt sure that they where
th