f the
element of time. As a matter of fact, there was not sufficient interval
for connected thought. Ahead of him was an open place in the woods, a
place strewn with flinty stones and arrowheads, with now and then a
black and rounded boulder, rolled there by glaciers that had once moved
over the face of the earth. This open spot, made barren by forces older
than man himself, he had crossed in one last effort to make his trail
difficult for the hound.

His eyes were fastened on it now. The sun, hot and brilliant since the
passing of the storms, blazed down upon it. On the other side the forest
grew dense and high like a wall of green. And now out of this forest,
into the ancient opening, came the hound.

Tom had never felt any grudge against the dog--he was only obeying a law
of his nature, only running a trail. Fascinated, he watched the animal,
oblivious for the moment of the significance of his presence. He had
been running fast in the forest, but now on this flinty and difficult
ground he slackened his pace and came on slowly, like a patient,
methodical fellow who makes sure he's right as he goes along. His nose,
almost touching the ground, never left the trail.

In crossing the opening the old man's foot had turned on a stone; he had
staggered, and placed his hand against one of the black boulders for
support. And now, when the hound came to this spot he stopped; he lifted
his head and whiffed the rock the man had touched with his hand. Next,
he reared up on the boulder and looked at its top. Then he came on, nose
low once more, pendulous ears actually dragging on the ground, tail
erect and now and then wagging stiffly as with joy.

While Tom still watched him he raised his muzzle; and there came from
his throat a deep, musical, bell-like challenge that echoed loudly in
the opening itself and more airily and sweetly between the ridge and the
mountains beyond. In answer, from a mile behind, so Tom calculated, came
a far more terrible sound--the wild, savage yells of two men, one wilder
and more savage than the other.

The old man took a deep breath and his beard was thrust suddenly
forward. But for the dog, those men would be helpless. But for the dog,
he could turn now, and the woods would swallow him up. In a flash an
inspiration was born, a conquering purpose such as must have entered the
mind of prehistoric man. He waited, his eyes on the hound.

A dog is nearsighted at best, and Sheriff was old. When he wa