ate zones--a wild
rain of ice-like particles that, as it struck, stung intolerably, and
which, driven in the wind, seemed like a solid sheet held up to veil
the landscape. It swirled and drifted about them and drove in their
faces as if directed by some malevolent fury. It closed their eyes,
clogged their feet, stopped their breathing, and at the moment when it
was most essential, made progress impossible. Dogs and men bowed to the
storm, and after two minutes of lost endeavour in attempting to face
it, the course was altered and they raced for the shore and the
friendly shelter of the trees. When they reached it, breathless and
gasping, they stood for a moment, whilst the storm shrieked among the
tree-tops and drove its icy hail like small shot against the trunks. In
the shelter of one of them, Stane, as his breath came back to him,
swung his rifle off his shoulder, and began to strip from it the
deer-hide covering. Jean Benard saw him, and in order to make himself
heard shouted to him.

"What you do, m'sieu?"

"I'm going after them, Jean. There's something badly wrong."

"Oui! But with zee storm, what can you do, m'sieu?"

"I can find that girl," he said. "Think, man, if she is bound to the
sled--in this----"

"Oui! Oui! m'sieu, I understand, but----"

"I shall work my way in the cover of the trees till I reach the bluff.
If the storm abates you will follow but do not pass the bluff. There
will be shelter in the lee of it, and I will wait your coming there."

"Go, and God go with you, m'sieu; but do not forget zee rifles which
were fired dere."

"I will keep them in mind," answered Stane, and then setting his face
to the storm, he began to work his way along the edge of the wood.

CHAPTER XX

A PRISONER

When Hubert Stane left the burning cabin, Helen did not obey his
injunctions to the letter. A full minute she was to wait in the shadow
of the door before emerging, but she disregarded the command altogether
in her anxiety to know what fate was to befall him. She guessed that on
his emergence he expected a volley, and had bidden her remain under
cover until the danger from it should have passed; and being morally
certain that he was going to his death, she had a mad impulse to die
with him in what was the supreme hour of her life. As the yell greeted
his emergence, she caught the sound of the rifle-shot, and not knowing
that it had been fired by Stane himself, in an agony of fear for him,
steppe