-thing was torture. It couldn't stop. It was insane. He
thought it would never be done. In a few minutes it was important to
have it done. She had said it was to paralyse its prey. It was enough
to paralyse anything. Then he jumped. Now _that_ was devilish! But
he was coming closer to the sound and getting interested, when it
stopped. So he followed it from place to place. Always, when he got
near possible range, it stopped. Always it began in a few minutes in
some other spot. There might be a dozen. . . .

And a woman, alone with two children and a dog, had endured this six
nights out of seven, night after night all night, for five weeks. . . .

Near morning, toward the front, a sick baby began to cry. While he
made his way around, his steps quickened to the very urge of its need.
He was quite near the tent when--a clear, high, agonised shriek. It
was the girl! And he ran.

There was an instant when he did not realise anything. He just saw.
Fifty feet from the tent, the Great Dane dog, his head low, almost
touching the ground, moving slowly, step by step--with a long, slender,
white figure dragged bodily on his neck. Then he heard:

"Rodger! Keep back! Take care of Baby. Nels, _Nels_! Nels, you must
_listen_ to me. . . . _Nels_!"

He caught hold of her and the dog at the same moment.

"Don't let him go. _Don't let go of Nels_!"

"All right, I won't. Now will you go back to the tent, please? I've
got Nels. I'm going with him."

"No, _the thing has happened_! I tell you, he doesn't even know me!
Why do you want him to go at all?"

"Because they keep out of my range, alone. He'll lead me to this one.
I'll take care of him. Now go; will you please go back?"

"I don't--"

A frantic scream from a boy's throat and in the same instant the
lifting cry of a younger child. Clear in the door-space of the tent,
behind them, two little figures clung together in the opening--and just
at one side, close to the children, a dark, ungainly shape! Skag
sprang three jumps toward the opposite side, dropped on one knee and
fired. The shape bounced up, crumpled over and lay still.

They both ran to the children. Skag had just made sure the beast was
dead, when he heard:

"Nels, Nels!--He is gone!"

"If you'll shut the door safely, I'll take care of Nels."

"It won't fasten, but I'll stay."

The Great Dane was not in sight but Skag knew the direction. He ran
almost upon them. Nels stood