and a fury of murderous teeth tore his
face and throat to bloody tatters as he slid lower, lower, settling
through crimson-dyed waters into the icy depths of Star Pond.

* * * * *

Stormont, down by the lake, called to Darragh, who appeared on the
veranda:

"Oh, Jim! Both otters crawled into the drain! I think your dogs must
have killed one of them under water. There's a big patch of blood
spreading off shore."

"Yes," said Darragh, "something has just been killed, somewhere. ...
Jack!"

"Yes?"

"Pull both your guns and come up here, quick!"

* * * * *

Episode Ten

The Twilight of Mike

* * * * *

I

When Quintana turned like an enraged snake on Sard and drove him to his
destruction, he would have killed and robbed the frightened diamond
broker had he dared risk the shot. He had intended to do this anyway,
sooner or later. But with the noise of the hunting dogs filling the
forest, Quintana was afraid to fire. Yet, even then he followed Sard
stealthily for a few minutes, afraid yet murderously desirous of the
gems, confused by the tumult of the hounds, timid and ferocious at the
same time, and loath to leave his fat, perspiring, and demoralised
victim.

But the racket of the dogs proved too much for Quintana. He sheered
away toward the South, leaving Sard floundering on ahead, unconscious of
the treachery that had followed furtively in his panic-stricken tracks.

About an hour later Quintana was seen, challenged, chased and shot at by
State Trooper Lannis.

Quintana ran. And what with the dense growth of seedling beech and oak
and the heavily falling birch and poplar leaves, Lannis first lost
Quintana and then his trail.

The State Trooper had left his horse at the cross-roads near the scene
of Darragh's masked exploit, where he had stopped and robbed Sard -- and
now Lannis hastened back to find and mount his horse, and gallop
straight into the first growth timber.

Through dim aisles of giant pine he spurred to a dead run on the chance
of cutting Quintana from the eastward edge of the forest and forcing him
back toward the north or west, where patrols were more than likely to
hold him.

The State Trooper rode with all the reckless indifference and grace of
the Western cavalryman, and he seemed to be part of the superb animal he
rode -- part of its bone and muscle, its litheness, its supple power --
part of its vertebrae and ribs and limbs, so perfect was their bodily
co-ordination.