56 ON THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS 
returned in his own tracks to the den again, took 
a long leap out and downward to one side, so he 
cleared twenty feet or more before he landed, and 
then trotted deliberately off along the mountain- 
side, keeping always in the most tangled laurel. 
He heard the dogs presently, baying and yipping 
excitedly above the den, where he had turned 
back in his tracks, and grinned to himself. 
Reddy had no intention of getting wearied, so 
he moved at a quiet trot. It was some time be- 
fore his ears told him the dogs had picked up his 
real trail again, and would be hot at his heels in 
a moment. He lengthened his stride and once 
more turned up the mountain, at a steep incline, 
meanwhile looking sharply about for strategic 
aids. The dogs were nearing him again, their 
barks showing signs of short windedness, when 
Big Reddy suddenly saw something that made 
him increase his speed. It was a white, gleaming 
slide, on an extremely steep pitch of slope, per- 
haps two hundred feet long and twenty feet wide. 
On either side was a tangle of laurel and broken 
tree trunks. The snow on the slide had been 
crusted with water from some spring above, and 
