of the moon, slipped over the crest of the 

 knoll, and made off, at a long, tireless gallop 

 which before morning had put leagues be- 

 tween himself and the angry villagers. 



After this he gave a wide berth to settle- 

 ments ; and having made his first kill, he 

 suddenly found himself an accomplished 

 hunter. It was as if long-buried memories had 

 sprung all at once to life memories, indeed, 

 not of his own but of his ancestors and he 

 knew, all at once, how to stalk the shy wild 

 rabbits, to run down and kill the red deer. 

 The country through which he journeyed 

 was well stocked with game, and he fed abun- 

 dantly as he went, with no more effort than 

 just enough to give zest to his freedom. In 

 this fashion he kept on for many days, working 

 ever northward just because the wild lands 

 stretched in that direction ; and at last he 

 came upon the skirts of a cone-shaped moun- 

 tain, ragged with ancient forest, rising solitary 

 and supreme out of a measureless expanse 

 of wooded plain. From a jutting shoulder 

 of rock his keen eyes noted but one straggling 

 settlement, groups of scattered clearings, 

 wide apart on the skirts of the great hill. 

 They were too far off to mar the vast 

 seclusion of the height ; and Lone Wolf, find- 

 ing a cave in the rocks that seemed exactly 



