se's feet, I loosed it upon him. I
must have let off both barrels at once, for the weapon flew out of my
hand, but the hound's back was broken. I presume the traveler understood;
at any rate, he did not fire at me.

"In moments of intense excitement like these, strangely enough, the mind
is extraordinarily open to impressions. I shall never forget that man's
countenance in the sledge, as he stood upright and defied us in his mortal
danger; it was young, very handsome, the features not distorted, but set
into a sort of desperate, stony calm, and I knew it, beyond all doubt, for
that of an Englishman. And then I saw his companion--it was the baron's
wife. And I understood why the bells had been removed.

"It takes a long time to say this; it only required an instant to see it.
The loud explosion of my pistol had hardly ceased to ring before the
baron, with a fearful imprecation, was upon me. First he lashed at me with
his whip as we tore along side by side, and then I saw him wind the reins
round his off arm and bend over, and I felt his angry fingers close
tightly on my right foot. The next instant I should have been lifted out
of my saddle, but there came another shot from the sledge. The baron's
horse plunged and stumbled, and the baron, hanging on to my foot with a
fierce grip, was wrenched from his seat. His horse, however, was up again
immediately, and I was released, and then I caught a confused glimpse of
the frightened and wounded animal galloping wildly away to the right,
leaving a black track of blood behind him in the snow, his master,
entangled in the reins, running with incredible swiftness by his side and
endeavoring to vault back into the saddle.

"And now came to pass a terrible thing which, in his savage plans, my host
had doubtless never anticipated.

"One of the hounds that had during this short check recovered lost ground,
coming across this hot trail of blood, turned away from his course, and
with a joyous yell darted after the running man. In another instant the
remainder of the pack was upon the new scent.

"As soon as I could stop my horse, I tried to turn him in the direction
the new chase had taken, but just then, through the night air, over the
receding sound of the horse's scamper and the sobbing of the pack in full
cry, there came a long scream, and after that a sickening silence. And I
knew that somewhere yonder, under the beautiful moonlight, the Baron
Kossowski was being devoured by hi