KOOT AND THE BOB-CAT 219 



that Koot began to see purple and yellow and red 

 patches dancing wherever he looked on the snow. He 

 drew his capote over his face to shade his eyes; but the 

 pace and the sun grew so hot that he was soon running 

 again unprotected from the blistering light. 



Towards the afternoon, Koot knew that something 

 had gone wrong. Some distance ahead, he saw a black 

 object against the snow. On the unbroken white, it 

 looked almost as big as a barrel and seemed at least a 

 mile away. Lowering his eyes, Koot let out a spurt of 

 speed, and the next thing he knew he had tripped his 

 snow-shoe and tumbled. Scrambling up, he saw that a 

 stick had caught the web of his snow-shoe; but where 

 was the barrel for which he had been steering? There 

 wasn t any barrel at all the barrel was this black 

 stick which hadn t been fifty yards away. Koot rubbed 

 his eyes and noticed that black and red and purple 

 patches were all over the snow. The drifts were heav 

 ing and racing after each other like waves on an angry 

 sea. He did not go much farther that day; for every 

 glint of snow scorched his eyes like a hot iron. He 

 camped at the first bluff and made a poultice of cold 

 tea leaves which he laid across his blistered face for 

 the night. 



Any one who knows the tortures of snow-blindness 

 will understand why Koot did not sleep that night. 

 It was a long night to the trapper, such a very long 

 night that the sun had been up for two hours before 

 its heat burned through the layers of his capote into 

 his eyes and roused him from sheer pain. Then he 

 sprang up, put up an ungantled , hand and knew from 

 the heat of the sun that it was broad day. But when 

 he took the bandage off his eyes, all he saw was a black 



