k from the distant woods, showed the wolves'
purpose clear as daylight; and had Noel been wiser he would have read a
warning from the snow and turned aside. But he only drew his longest,
keenest arrow and pressed on more eagerly than before.

The two trails had crossed each other at last. Beginning near together,
one on the mountains, the other by the sea, they had followed their
separate devious ways, now far apart in the glad bright summer, now
drawing together in the moonlight of the winter's night. At times the
makers of the trails had watched each other in secret, shyly,
inquisitively, at a distance; but always fear or cunning had kept them
apart, the boy with his keen hunter's interest baffled and whetted by
the brutes' wariness, and the wolves drawn to the superior being by that
subtle instinct that once made glad hunting-dogs and collies of the wild
rangers of the plains, and that still leads a wolf to follow and watch
the doings of men with intense curiosity. Now the trails had met fairly
in the snow, and a few steps more would bring the boy and the wolf face
to face.

* * * * *

Noel was stealing along warily, his arrow ready on the string. Mooka
beside him was watching a faint cloud of mist, the breath of caribou,
that blurred at times the dark tree-line in the distance, when one of
those mysterious warnings that befall the hunter in the far North rested
upon them suddenly like a heavy hand.

I know not what it is,--what lesser pressure of air, to which we respond
like a barometer; or what unknown chords there are within us that sleep
for years in the midst of society and that waken and answer, like an
animal's, to the subtle influence of nature,--but one can never be
watched by an unseen wild animal without feeling it vaguely; and one can
never be so keen on the trail that the storm, before it breaks, will not
whisper a warning to turn back to shelter before it is too late. To Noel
and Mooka, alone on the barrens, the sun was no dimmer than before; the
heavy gray bank of clouds still held sullenly to its place on the
horizon; and no eyes, however keen, would have noticed the tiny dark
spots that centered and glowed upon them over the rim of the little
hollow where the wolves were watching. Nevertheless, a sudden chill fell
upon them both. They stopped abruptly, shivering a bit, drawing closer
together and scanning the waste keenly to know what it all meant.

"_Mitcheegeeso