anting up and ploughing down, the steep slopes,
his eyes were keen for meat, be it Douglas squirrel or bear. But the
woods seemed deserted and empty; only those cheerful, impudent little
bundles of feathers, the snowbirds, and an occasional, darting
water-ouzel along the creeks. These he let alone, but with the mental
reservation that the time might well be at hand when even such as they
must be called on to keep life in him and Gloria.

He had taken on a man's-sized contract for his morning's work and drove
his big body at it relentlessly. And he took his own sort of joy from
it, the joy of a fight against odds, the joy of action in the open. His
body was wet with sweat, but neither his ardour nor optimism were
dampened; his foot came perilously near frost-bite after he slipped into
the hidden water of a small stream, but he considered the accident but a
part of the day's work. So, prepared by common sense for
disappointment, he looked hopefully to finding the horse. And as he
pushed on he pondered other likely spots to seek this afternoon or
to-morrow if he did not find the animal in the sequoias.

When at last he came to the grove of big trees he was among old friends.
But he knew almost as soon as he reached them that they had no word for
him to-day. On his wedding morning he had planned how he would bring
Gloria here, taking it for granted, in his blind infatuation, that they
would mean to her what they had meant to him. Now he passed swiftly like
a noiseless shadow between the gigantic boles; he did not lift his head
to look at old Vulcan's lightning-blasted crest, two hundred feet in
air, all but lost up there in the falling snow; he gave no thought to
the thousands of years which were Majesty's and Thor's. He went with his
eyes on the ground, seeking tracks of a horse. And as he had more than
half expected, he found nothing. The magnificent vistas, carpeted in
snow, gave him no view of anything but snow.

Later he must cudgel his brains and seek elsewhere. Now, with other work
to be done, he should go back the shortest, quickest way. So he set his
feet into the trail which they had made, and turned his back upon the
grove. Where he crossed streams he took stock of pools; there were trout
there if a man could take them. This was another matter to see about.
Oh, he would be busy enough. And yet he did not loiter, and stopped only
briefly and infrequently to rest.

Before returning to Gloria, King meant to look