oken save for an occasional spruce which,
having taken root in the scarred soil, was now thrusting up its dark
branches through the blanket of white. Norris was the first to take off.
He shot downward and as he gained momentum sent back a cry that floated
up eerily. Teeny-bits poised at the edge and took a deep breath. This
was living. Down there, growing smaller and smaller, a moving speck that
seemed a mere shadow on the snow, was a new friend of his. It seemed
strange that this was one of the outcomes of the Jefferson-Ridgley game:
that from so desperate a struggle had arisen this opportunity to know
the leader of the purple for whom he held a growing admiration. A fellow
who fought so hard and so cleanly, who took defeat so wonderfully and
who made such a good pal was only a little less to be admired than Neil
Durant. Perhaps there was not any real difference in Teeny-bits' feeling
for the two.

"I'm off," cried Teeny-bits; "see you at the bottom," and giving a
strong thrust with his pole sent himself out upon the smooth surface.

With body bent slightly forward he took the first gentle slope and felt
the exhilarating sensation of gathering speed as his skis carried him
away from his friends. It was something between flying through the air
and riding on the top of an undulating wave of water. Following Ted
Norris' example he sent a shout back to the group on the crest and then
gave himself completely to the joy of meeting each surprise of the snow
with the proper adjustment of body and limbs that would enable him to
make the descent in one unbroken slide. He had never taken so swift a
flight,--it was as if he were rushing through space with scarcely any
realization of the landscape round him.

Midway in The Slide, Teeny-bits suddenly found himself dodging a thicket
of small spruce trees. He escaped them by swerving quickly, but he went
too far to the left. Other small trees confronted him; his body brushed
sharply against the branches, and then looming before him was an old
monarch of the forest that somehow had escaped when the slide had
scarred the mountain-side. Its gnarled branches, standing out vaguely in
the half-light of the moon and stars like the arms of an octopus, seemed
to Teeny-bits to rise up and seize him. He had the feeling that
something was lifting him into the air, that he was going up and up into
the silver face of the moon. It seemed also that at the same time there
was a flash of light follow