ng out again
through his nostrils. As with the horse, the sweat oozed at every pore.
Collecting on his brow and face, it dripped slowly from his great chin.
Dampening, his clothes clung binding-tight to his body; but he never
noticed. He looked neither to the right nor to the left, nor behind
him; but, like a sprinter approaching the wire, only straight ahead.

Under him the miles flowed past like water. Five, ten, a dozen he
covered; then of a sudden he turned again to the south, quitting his
shelter of the river-bed. For a time the country was very rough, but he
scarcely slackened his pace. Once he fell through the crust of a drift,
and went down nearly to his neck; but he crowded his way through by
sheer strength, emerging a powdered figure from the snow which clung to
his damp clothes. The sun was down now, and he knew darkness would come
very quickly and he must reach the divide, the probable trail, before it
fell, and there select his point of waiting.

As he moved on, he saw some miles ahead that which decided him. A low
chain of hills, stretching to the north and south, crossed the great
divide as a fallen log spans a path. In these hills, appreciable even at
this distance, there was a dip, an almost level pass. A small diversity
it was on the face of nature, but to a weary man, fleeing afoot, seen in
the distance it would irresistibly appeal. Almost as certain as though
he saw the black figure already heading for it, the hunter felt it would
be utilized. Anyway, he would take the chance; and with a last spurt of
speed he put himself fairly in its way. To clear a narrow strip of
ground the length of his body, and build around it like a breastwork a
border of snow, was the work of but a few minutes; then, wrapped in his
blanket, too deadly tired to even attempt to eat, he dropped behind the
cover like a log. At first the rest was that of Paradise; but swiftly
came the reaction, the chill. To lie there in his present condition
meant but one thing, that never would he arise again; and with an effort
the man got to his feet and started walking. It was dark again now, and
the sky was becoming rapidly overcast. Within an hour it began to snow,
a steady big-flaked snow that fairly filled the air and lay where it
fell. The night grew slightly warmer, and, rolling in the blanket once
more, Ben lay down; but the warning chill soon had him again upon his
feet, walking back and forth in the one beaten path.

Very long the