, you
understand. And if there had been any enemy in hiding, waiting for him
outside, he would have discovered the fact then. He had many enemies,
and no friends, had Gulo. All that he received from all whom he met
was hate, but he gave back more than he got. In the lucid terms of the
vernacular, he "was a hard un, if you like."

Nothing and nobody saw the wolverine leave that lair that was not his.
He must have chosen one blinding squall of snow for the purpose, and
was half a mile away, still on the track of the reindeer, before he
showed himself--shuffling along as usual, a ragged, hard-bitten
ruffian. And three hours later he came up with his prey.

Gulo knew it, but nobody else could have done. There were just the
straight trees ahead, and all around the eternal white, frozen silence,
and the snow falling softly over everything; but Gulo was as certain
that there was the herd close ahead as he was that he was ravenous.
And thereafter Gulo got to work, the peculiar work, a special devilish
genius for which appears to be given to the wolverine.

He ceased to exist. At least, nothing of him was seen, not a tail, not
an eye-gleam. Yet during the next two hours he learnt everything,
private and public, there was to be learnt. Also, he had been over the
surroundings almost to a yard. Nothing could have escaped him. No
detail of risk and danger, of the chance of being seen even, had been
overlooked; for he was a master at his craft, the greatest master in
the wild, perhaps. The wolf? My dear sirs, the wolf was an innocent
suckling cub beside Gulo, look you, and his brain and his cunning were
not the brain and the cunning of a beast at all, but of a devil.

When, after a very long time, he reappeared upon his original track, it
was as a dark blotch, indistinguishable from a dozen other dark blots
of moon-shadow, creeping forward belly-flat in the snow. This
belly-creep, hugging always every available inch of cover, he kept up
till he came to a big clearing, and--there were the reindeer. At
least, there was one reindeer, a doe, standing with her back towards
him--a quite young doe. The rest were half-hidden in the snow, which
they had trampled into a maze of paths in and out about the clearing,
which was, in fact, what is called their "yard."

A minute of tense silence followed after Gulo had got as close as he
could without being seen. Then he rushed.

The reindeer swung half-round, gave one snort, a