p on the near horse's bridle and
plodded forward cautiously, with the rain in his face when he crossed
the openings in the wood. The snow reflected a puzzling glimmer, but the
darkness was thick among the trees, and drops from the shaking branches
fell into his eyes. Turning his hat-brim down, he felt for the edge of
the trail.

By and by he stopped at the top of a descent. The gray snow looked all
the same, and the hollow track vanished a few yards in front; the
rows of trunks had faded into a vague dark mass, and the branches met
overhead in a thick canopy. The horses were big, valuable Percherons,
but they were exhausted and stood slackly, with steam rising from their
foam-flecked coats. Festing did not like the look of the dip, and knew
the trees grew close upon the track at the bottom, but he must go down,
and shouted to the hesitating animals.

They moved faster; the log grinding heavily across the snow behind. Then
the strain on the chain slackened, and he dragged at the bridle as he
began to run. The log could not be stopped now; it was moving faster
than he had thought, and all that he could do was to keep the team in
front. His feet slipped on the icy trail, and the horses floundered, but
they knew the danger and broke into a clumsy trot. It was hard to keep
up, but Festing must hold them to the track and steer them round a bend
ahead.

The log lurched noisily across lumps and hollows, the chain made a harsh
clank, and the wood echoed the thud of heavy hoofs. Festing ran his
best, and imagined that he was running for the horses' lives and perhaps
for his. He durst not look round, and could only guess where the log was
by the noise. The blurred trees rolled back to him in a thick dark mass,
but he thought the gap he followed got narrower ahead. This was, no
doubt, the awkward spot where the trunks closed on the track, and there
was a corner. He must go on and trust to luck for getting round.

In a few moments he was almost at the corner, and although it was hard
to see, thought he distinguished a break in the dark wall of trees. One
must keep to the inside, on the right; but there was very little room,
and if he miscalculated, he or the horses would collide with a trunk.
He smashed through a bush that caught his foot, but his hold upon the
bridle saved him from a fall. It looked as if he had left the track and
was plunging into the wood. Then a black trunk became detached from the
rest, apparently straight