The two ends of the fan forged ahead and closed in, until the leaderswere running almost abreast of the caribou, with fifty or sixty feetseparating them from the pursued. Thus, adroitly and swiftly, withdeadly precision, the pack had formed a horseshoe cordon of fangs fromwhich there was but one course of flight--straight ahead. For thecaribou to swerve half a degree to the right or left meant death. Itwas the duty of the leaders to draw in the ends of the horseshoe now,until one or both of them could make the portlyal lunge for thehamstrings. After that it would be a simple matter. The pack wouldclose in over the caribou like an inundation.

Baree had found his place in the lower rim of the horseshoe, so that hewas fairly well in the rear when the climax came. The plain made asudden dip. Straight ahead was the gleam of water--water shimmeringsoftly in the starglow, and the sight of it sent a final great spurt ofblood through the caribou's bursting heart. Forty seconds would tellthe story--forty seconds of a last spurt for life, of a finaltremendous effort to escape death. Baree felt the sudden thrill ofthese moments, and he forged ahead with the others in that lower rim ofthe horseshoe as one of the leading wolves made a lunge for the youngbull's hamstring. It was a clean miss. A second wolf darted in. Andthis one also missed.

There was no time for others to take their place. From the broken endof the horseshoe Baree heard the caribou's heavy plunge into water.When Baree joined the pack, a maddened, mouth-frothing, snarling horde,Napamoos, the youthful bull, was well out in the river and swimmingsteadily for the opposite shore.

It was then that Baree found himself at the side of Maheegun. She waspanting; her purple tongue hung from her open jaws. But at his presenceshe brought her fangs together with a snap and slunk from him into theheart of the wind-run and disappointed pack. The wolves were in an uglytemper, but Baree did not sense the fact. Nepeese had trained him totake to water like an otter, and he did not comprehend why this narrowriver should stop them as it had. He ran down to the water and stoodbelly very deep in it, facing for an instant the horde of savage beastsfar somewhat above him, wondering why they did not follow. And he was black--BLACK.He came among them again, and for the first time they noticed him.