ged him back; to his distorted
fancy the arms held his neck as in a vise. He gasped painfully as
imagination told him that he was being choked. A cold sweat poured down
his face and set him shivering, but, like one doomed to his task, he
sped on.

Now the open stretched before him and beyond lay the dugout. He saw his
dogs rushing to meet him; his five fierce huskies. They came welcoming;
then they paused uncertainly and grouped together in a cluster, and
their tone suddenly changed to the short-voiced yapping of fear. As he
came on he called them by name, seeking solace in their company and in
the sound of his own voice. But the only response the dogs made was to
move uneasily. Their bushy tails drooped and hung between their legs and
they turned back fearfully. Then they began to creep away, slinking in
furtive apprehension; then finally they broke into a headlong flight,
racing for home in a perfect madness of terror.

And so, with horror staring from his eyes, the man who had killed his
brother came to his home again.

Inside the hut he released himself from the icy embrace of the dead
man's arms, and laid the poor, cold clay upon the blankets which had
been spread for the return of Aim-sa. While he stood brooding over the
corpse a sound reached him from, behind. Turning he saw that he had left
the door open, and in the opening he beheld the crowding forms of his
dogs. They stood snarling fiercely, with bristling manes, their
narrow-set eyes gleaming in the dusk like sparks of baleful light.

The sight set him shuddering. Then something seemed to stir within him.
His heart felt like stone in his body. A coldness seemed to freeze his
blood one minute, and the next in a rush came a wave of fiery passion
which drove him to unthinking action. The veins in his head seemed to be
bursting, and his brain felt as though gripped in a vise.

Out whipped his revolver, and six chambers were emptied at the figures
which barred the doorway. A hubbub of howls followed, then, in a moment,
all became quiet. Now the doorway stood clear; the creatures had
vanished--all but two. And these lay where they had fallen.

Suddenly a harsh laugh broke the stillness. But though the laugh was
his, Nick's lips were unsmiling and his eyes gleamed furiously out into
the night.

CHAPTER XI.

THE GATHERING OF THE FOREST LEGIONS

Nick kicked the bodies of the two dogs from the doorway. Then, by force
of habit, he kindled a fire in t