-up. Her lines were rounder, her muscles fuller, and there was
about her that indefinite something of maturity that was new to her and
that incited me on. Three years she had been gone--three years at the
very least, and the change in her was marked. I say three years; it is
as near as I can measure the time. A fourth year may have elapsed, which
I have confused with the happenings of the other three years. The more I
think of it, the more confident I am that it must be four years that she
was away.

Where she went, why she went, and what happened to her during that time,
I do not know. There was no way for her to tell me, any more than there
was a way for Lop-Ear and me to tell the Folk what we had seen when
we were away. Like us, the chance is she had gone off on an
adventure-journey, and by herself. On the other hand, it is possible
that Red-Eye may have been the cause of her going. It is quite certain
that he must have come upon her from time to time, wandering in the
woods; and if he had pursued her there is no question but that it would
have been sufficient to drive her away. From subsequent events, I am led
to believe that she must have travelled far to the south, across a range
of mountains and down to the banks of a strange river, away from any of
her kind. Many Tree People lived down there, and I think it must have
been they who finally drove her back to the horde and to me. My reasons
for this I shall explain later.

The shadows grew longer, and I pursued more ardently than ever, and
still I could not catch her. She made believe that she was trying
desperately to escape me, and all the time she managed to keep just
beyond reach. I forgot everything--time, the oncoming of night, and my
meat-eating enemies. I was insane with love of her, and with--anger,
too, because she would not let me come up with her. It was strange how
this anger against her seemed to be part of my desire for her.

As I have said, I forgot everything. In racing across an open space I
ran full tilt upon a colony of snakes. They did not deter me. I was mad.
They struck at me, but I ducked and dodged and ran on. Then there was a
python that ordinarily would have sent me screeching to a tree-top. He
did run me into a tree; but the Swift One was going out of sight, and I
sprang back to the ground and went on. It was a close shave. Then there
was my old enemy, the hyena. From my conduct he was sure something was
going to happen, and he followe