n arrow.

In a few moments he had left not only his companion but the last
straggling houses of the outskirts far behind him, and had struck out in
a long, swinging trot for the disused "cut-off." Already he fancied he
heard the note of clamor in Indian Spring, and thought he distinguished
the sound of hurrying hoofs on the great highway. But the sunken trail
hid it from his view. From the column of smoke now plainly visible
in the growing morning light he tried to locate the scene of the
conflagration. It was evidently not a fire advancing regularly from the
outer skirt of the wood, communicated to it from the Divide; it was a
local outburst near its centre. It was not in the direction of his cabin
in the tree. There was no immediate danger to Teresa, unless fear drove
her beyond the confines of the wood into the hands of those who might
recognize her. The screaming of jays and ravens above his head quickened
his speed, as it heralded the rapid advance of the flames; and the
unexpected apparition of a bounding body, flattened and flying over
the yellow plain, told him that even the secure retreat of the
mountain wild-cat had been invaded. A sudden recollection of Teresa's
uncontrollable terror that first night smote him with remorse and
redoubled his efforts. Alone in the track of these frantic and
bewildered beasts, to what madness might she not be driven!

The sharp crack of a rifle from the high road turned his course
momentarily in that direction. The smoke was curling lazily over the
heads of the party of men in the road, while the huge hulk of a grizzly
was disappearing in the distance. A battue of the escaping animals had
commenced! In the bitterness of his heart he caught at the horrible
suggestion, and resolved to save her from them or die with her there.

How fast he ran, or the time it took him to reach the woods, has never
been known. Their outlines were already hidden when he entered them.
To a sense less keen, a courage less desperate, and a purpose less
unaltered than Low's, the wood would have been impenetrable. The central
fire was still confined to the lofty tree tops, but the downward rush of
wind from time to time drove the smoke into the aisles in blinding and
suffocating volumes. To simulate the creeping animals, and fall to the
ground on hands and knees, feel his way through the underbrush when
the smoke was densest, or take advantage of its momentary lifting, and
without uncertainty, mistake,