64 Recreations of a Sportsman 



strangulation, and despair of man or beast. 

 Not for a moment did the desperate man re- 

 lease his grip; the huge, doglike beast tore ridges 

 in his face with its fore-claws, while the man 

 beast, bearing it down, in turn tried to fasten 

 his teeth upon the animal's throat. Slowly and 

 surely he choked it, not releasing his hold until 

 the brute was almost stiff; then he hurled it 

 aside. Embued now with superhuman strength, 

 he picked up the fur bundle, slung it upon his 

 back, adjusted his skees, and ran as though for 

 his life. Once more, amid a snow-storm, he 

 stopped to eat, and to feed the child that now 

 was almost always silent. But there was 

 nothing; the roll containing the supply had 

 been lost. To return was impossible; the drift- 

 ing snow covered up the skee-marks as fast as 

 they were made. It took some minutes for 

 Clancy to realize the situation, and then he broke 

 into a roar of terrible laughter; such laughter 

 as had never been heard in those solitudes. 

 Again slinging his bundle upon his back, he 

 moved on to the south, laughing, singing, talk- 

 ing to the child. There followed long periods of 

 silence. Time and again he fell over rocks and 

 trunks of trees, but always on his face. And 

 so he plunged along, at times raving like a mad- 

 man. Great eyes peered at him, eyes of demons, 

 eyes of wolves; but he staggered on until a 

 larger wolf's eye than ever burst upon him; 



