bout them into nothingness, and
listening. Twice Alan thought he heard sounds which did not belong to
the night. The second time the little fingers tightened about his own,
but his companion said no word, only her breath seemed to catch in her
throat for an instant.

At the end of another half-hour it was growing lighter, yet the breath
of storm seemed nearer. The cool promise of it touched their cheeks, and
about them were gathering whispers and eddies of a thirsty earth rousing
to the sudden change. It was lighter because the wall of cloud seemed to
be distributing itself over the whole heaven, thinning out where its
solid opaqueness had lain against the sun. Alan could see the girl's
face and the cloud of her hair. Hollows and ridges of the tundra were
taking more distinct shape when they came into a dip, and Alan
recognized a thicket of willows behind which a pool was hidden.

The thicket was only half a mile from home. A spring was near the edge
of the willows, and to this he led the girl, made her a place to kneel,
and showed her how to cup the cool water in the palms of her hands.
While she inclined her head to drink, he held back her hair and rested
with his lips pressed to it. He heard the trickle of water running
between her fingers, her little laugh of half-pleasure, half-fear, which
in another instant broke into a startled scream as he half gained his
feet to meet a crashing body that catapulted at him from the concealment
of the willows.

A greater commotion in the thicket followed the attack; then another
voice, crying out sharply, a second cry from Mary Standish, and he found
himself on his knees, twisted backward and fighting desperately to
loosen a pair of gigantic hands at his throat. He could hear the girl
struggling, but she did not cry out again. In an instant, it seemed, his
brain was reeling. He was conscious of a futile effort to reach his gun,
and could see the face over him, grim and horrible in the gloom, as the
merciless hands choked the life from him. Then he heard a shout, a loud
shout, filled with triumph and exultation as he was thrown back; his
head seemed leaving his shoulders; his body crumbled, and almost
spasmodically his leg shot out with the last strength that was in him.
He was scarcely aware of the great gasp that followed, but the fingers
loosened at his throat, the face disappeared, and the man who was
killing him sank back. For a precious moment or two Alan did not move as