It was then, with his scratched and bleeding face lying in the snow,
that reason began to return to him. After a little while he dragged
himself weakly to his knees, still panting from the mad effort he had
made to overtake the sledge. From a great distance he heard faintly
the noise of shouting, the whispering echo of half a hundred voices,
and he knew that the sound came from the revelers at the post. It was
proof to him that there had been no interruption to the carnival, and
that the scene at the edge of the forest had been witnessed by none.
Quickly his mental faculties readjusted themselves. He rose to his
feet, and for a few moments stood hesitatingly. He had no weapon; but
as his hand rested upon the empty knife-sheath at his belt, there came
to him a thought of the way in which Mukee had avenged Cummins' wife,
and he turned again upon the trail. He no longer touched the low-
hanging bushes. He was no more than a shadow, appearing and
disappearing without warning, trailing as the white ermine follows its
prey, noiseless, alert, his body responding sinuously and without
apparent effort to the working commands of his brain.
Where the forest broke into an open, lighted by the stars, he found
blood in the footprints of the leading dog.
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