es, fixed again so that he could
not move, his feet upon platforms at either side of a harbour of snow.

He heard the door open now again sharply, and he felt certain, yes,
certain, that the lasso was on its way through the air; this time he was
not going to submit. As men do unthinkingly what they could in no way do
by thought, he found himself facing the door, his snow-shoes truly
inextricably mixed with one another, but still he had turned round.
There was no rope, no Morin; Madge was standing alone upon the outer
step of the porch, her face aflame with indignation.

'This is either perfect folly or you have deceived me,' she cried.

'I shall learn how to use them in a minute,' he said humbly. He was
conscious as he spoke that his twisted legs made but an unsteady
pedestal, that the least push would have sent him headlong into the
drift.

'How could you say that you would go?' she asked fiercely.

He looked down at his feet as schoolboys do when chidden, but for
another reason. The question as to whether or not he could get his
snow-shoes headed again in the right direction weighed like lead upon
his heart.

'I thought that I could walk upon these things,' he said, and he added,
with such determination as honour flying from shame only knows, 'and I
will walk on them and do your errand.'

With that, by carefully untwisting his legs, he faced again in the right
direction, but, having lifted his right foot too high in the untwisting
process, he found that the slender tail of its snow-shoe stuck down in
the snow, setting the shoe pointing skyward and his toe, tied by the
thongs, held prisoner about a foot above the snow. He tried to kick, but
the shoe became more firmly embedded. He lost his balance, and only by a
wild fling of his body, in which his arms went up into the air, did he
regain his upright position. The moment of calm which succeeded produced
from him another remark.

'It seems to me that you have got me now in closer bonds than before.'
As he spoke he turned his glance backward and saw that comment of his
was needless.

The girl had at last yielded to laughter. Worn out, no doubt, by a
long-controlled excitement, laughter had now entirely overcome her.
Leaning her head on her hand and her shoulders against a pillar of the
porch, she was shaking visibly from head to foot, and the effort she
made to keep the sound of her amusement within check only seemed to make
its hold upon her more absolute.