diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:41:26 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:41:26 -0700 |
| commit | 3e9333e0f0c700d0b0b99ac8fdfd9667a3821709 (patch) | |
| tree | 32090202fd6b1ad4665b988b571ba699af02505e /old | |
Diffstat (limited to 'old')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 1531786 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/13131-h.htm | 2304 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/002.jpg | bin | 0 -> 41599 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/011.jpg | bin | 0 -> 12599 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/078.jpg | bin | 0 -> 14870 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/078a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 16501 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/078b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 12853 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/078c.jpg | bin | 0 -> 20865 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/129.jpg | bin | 0 -> 18417 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/129a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 16863 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/129b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 13073 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/129c.jpg | bin | 0 -> 8825 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/195.jpg | bin | 0 -> 11602 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/195a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 21580 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/195b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 13943 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/295.jpg | bin | 0 -> 16557 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/295a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 11165 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/295b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 15245 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/295c.jpg | bin | 0 -> 16925 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/359.jpg | bin | 0 -> 13962 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/359a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 14044 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/425.jpg | bin | 0 -> 11528 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/425a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 16180 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/523.jpg | bin | 0 -> 12228 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/523a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 15124 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/523b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 22827 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/finding-tn.png | bin | 0 -> 43012 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/finding.png | bin | 0 -> 132291 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/finish-tn.png | bin | 0 -> 44929 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/finish.png | bin | 0 -> 134904 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/front-tn.png | bin | 0 -> 44737 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/front.png | bin | 0 -> 169189 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/initial.gif | bin | 0 -> 38906 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/race-tn.png | bin | 0 -> 28795 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/race.png | bin | 0 -> 126445 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/rolwship-tn.png | bin | 0 -> 45837 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/rolwship.png | bin | 0 -> 136479 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/wfescape-tn.png | bin | 0 -> 41912 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131-h/images/wfescape.png | bin | 0 -> 124635 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131.txt | 2246 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13131.zip | bin | 0 -> 42478 bytes |
41 files changed, 4550 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/13131-h.zip b/old/13131-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa3428f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h.zip diff --git a/old/13131-h/13131-h.htm b/old/13131-h/13131-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..315c2c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/13131-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2304 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Were-Wolf, by Clemence Housman</title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body.foo { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10% } +body { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10% } +p {text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em } +h1 { text-align: center} +h2 { text-align: center} +h3 { text-align: center} +h4 { text-align: center} +h5 { text-align: center} +hr.front { width: 125%; height: 0px} +p.straight {text-align: left; text-indent: 0em} +p.front { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em} +span.pagenum {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;} + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza{margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + .figure {padding: 1em; margin: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em; margin: auto;} + .figure img {border: none;} + .figure p {border: none;} + hr.full { width: 100%; } + a:link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:#ff0000} + pre {font-size: 8pt;} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Were-Wolf, by Clemence Housman, +Illustrated by Laurence Housman</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Were-Wolf</p> +<p>Author: Clemence Housman</p> +<p>Release Date: August 7, 2004 [eBook #13131]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WERE-WOLF***</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<h3>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Hagen von Eitzen,<br /> + and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders</h3> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr class="full" /> +<br /> +<br /> +<h2>THE WERE-WOLF</h2> +<h3>by</h3> +<h2>Clemence Housman</h2> +<h3>Illustrations by Laurence Housman</h3> +<h4>1896</h4> +<hr width="38%"/> +<div class="figure"><a name="front.png" href="images/front.png"><img + src="images/front-tn.png" alt="Illustration: Holy Water"/></a></div> +<hr width="38%"/> +<div class="figure"><img src="images/initial.gif" + alt="THE WERE-WOLF / BY CLEMENCE HOUSMAN / WITH SIX ILLUSTRATIONS / BY LAURENCE HOUSMAN // LONDON: JOHN LANE / AT THE BODLEY HEAD / CHICAGO: WAY AND / WILLIAMS 1896"/></div> +<hr width="38%"/> +<p class="front"><big>TO THE DEAR MEMORY OF<br/> +E.W.P. +</big></p> +<p class="front">"YOU WILL THINK OF ME SOMETIMES,<br/> +MY DEAR?" +</p> +<hr width="38%"/> +<h2>LIST OF PLATES</h2> +<div style="margin-left: 38%; margin-right: 38%;"> +<p class="straight"><a href="#front.png">Holy Water</a><br/> +<a href="#rolwship.png">Rol's Worship</a><br/> +<a href="#wfescape.png">White Fell's Escape</a><br/> +<a href="#race.png">The Race</a><br/> +<a href="#finish.png">The Finish</a><br/> +<a href="#finding.png">Sweyn's Finding</a><br/> +</p> +</div> +<hr width="38%"/> +<h1>THE WERE-WOLF</h1> +<p> +The great farm hall was ablaze with the fire-light, and noisy with +laughter and talk and many-sounding work. None could be idle but +the very young and the very old: little Rol, who was hugging a +puppy, and old Trella, whose palsied hand fumbled over her +knitting. The early evening had closed in, and the farm-servants, +come from their outdoor work, had assembled in the ample hall, +which gave space for a score or more of workers. Several of the +men were engaged in carving, and to these were yielded the best +place and light; others made or repaired fishing-tackle and +harness, and a great seine net occupied three pairs of hands. Of +the women most were sorting and mixing eider feather and chopping +straw to add to it. Looms were there, though not in present use, +but three wheels whirred emulously, and the finest and swiftest +thread of the three ran between the fingers of the house-mistress. +Near her were some children, busy too, plaiting wicks for candles +and lamps. Each group of workers had a lamp in its centre, and +those farthest from the fire had live heat from two braziers +filled with glowing wood embers, replenished now and again from +the generous hearth. But the flicker of the great fire was +manifest to remotest corners, and prevailed beyond the limits of +the weaker lights. +</p> +<p>Little Rol grew tired of his puppy, dropped it incontinently, and +made an onslaught on Tyr, the old wolf-hound, who basked dozing, +whimpering and twitching in his hunting dreams. Prone went Rol +beside Tyr, his young arms round the shaggy neck, his curls +against the black jowl. Tyr gave a perfunctory lick, and stretched +with a sleepy sigh. Rol growled and rolled and shoved invitingly, +but could only gain from the old dog placid toleration and a +half-observant blink. "Take that then!" said Rol, indignant at this +ignoring of his advances, and sent the puppy sprawling against the +dignity that disdained him as playmate. The dog took no notice, +and the child wandered off to find amusement elsewhere. +</p> +<p>The baskets of white eider feathers caught his eye far off in a +distant corner. He slipped under the table, and crept along on +all-fours, the ordinary common-place custom of walking down a room +upright not being to his fancy. When close to the women he lay +still for a moment watching, with his elbows on the floor and his +chin in his palms. One of the women seeing him nodded and smiled, +and presently he crept out behind her skirts and passed, hardly +noticed, from one to another, till he found opportunity to possess +himself of a large handful of feathers. With these he traversed +the length of the room, under the table again, and emerged near +the spinners. At the feet of the youngest he curled himself round, +sheltered by her knees from the observation of the others, and +disarmed her of interference by secretly displaying his handful +with a confiding smile. A dubious nod satisfied him, and presently +he started on the play he had devised. He took a tuft of the white +down, and gently shook it free of his fingers close to the whirl +of the wheel. The wind of the swift motion took it, spun it round +and round in widening circles, till it floated above like a slow +white moth. Little Rol's eyes danced, and the row of his small +teeth shone in a silent laugh of delight. Another and another of +the white tufts was sent whirling round like a winged thing in a +spider's web, and floating clear at last. Presently the handful +failed. +</p> +<p>Rol sprawled forward to survey the room, and contemplate another +journey under the table. His shoulder, thrusting forward, checked +the wheel for an instant; he shifted hastily. The wheel flew on +with a jerk, and the thread snapped. "Naughty Rol!" said the girl. +The swiftest wheel stopped also, and the house-mistress, Rol's +aunt, leaned forward, and sighting the low curly head, gave a +warning against mischief, and sent him off to old Trella's corner. +</p> +<p>Rol obeyed, and after a discreet period of obedience, sidled out +again down the length of the room farthest from his aunt's eye. As +he slipped in among the men, they looked up to see that their +tools might be, as far as possible, out of reach of Rol's hands, +and close to their own. Nevertheless, before long he managed to +secure a fine chisel and take off its point on the leg of the +table. The carver's strong objections to this disconcerted Rol, +who for five minutes thereafter effaced himself under the table. +</p> +<p>During this seclusion he contemplated the many pairs of legs that +surrounded him, and almost shut out the light of the fire. How +very odd some of the legs were: some were curved where they should +be straight, some were straight where they should be curved, and, +as Rol said to himself, "they all seemed screwed on differently." +Some were tucked away modestly under the benches, others were +thrust far out under the table, encroaching on Rol's own +particular domain. He stretched out his own short legs and +regarded them critically, and, after comparison, favourably. Why +were not all legs made like his, or like <i>his</i>? +</p> +<p>These legs approved by Rol were a little apart from the rest. He +crawled opposite and again made comparison. His face grew quite +solemn as he thought of the innumerable days to come before his +legs could be as long and strong. He hoped they would be just like +those, his models, as straight as to bone, as curved as to muscle. +</p> +<p>A few moments later Sweyn of the long legs felt a small hand +caressing his foot, and looking down, met the upturned eyes of his +little cousin Rol. Lying on his back, still softly patting and +stroking the young man's foot, the child was quiet and happy for a +good while. He watched the movement of the strong deft hands, and +the shifting of the bright tools. Now and then, minute chips of +wood, puffed off by Sweyn, fell down upon his face. At last he +raised himself, very gently, lest a jog should wake impatience in +the carver, and crossing his own legs round Sweyn's ankle, +clasping with his arms too, laid his head against the knee. Such +act is evidence of a child's most wonderful hero-worship. Quite +content was Rol, and more than content when Sweyn paused a minute +to joke, and pat his head and pull his curls. Quiet he remained, +as long as quiescence is possible to limbs young as his. Sweyn +forgot he was near, hardly noticed when his leg was gently +released, and never saw the stealthy abstraction of one of his +tools. +</p> +<div class="figure"><a name="rolwship.png" href="images/rolwship.png"><img + src="images/rolwship-tn.png" alt="Illustration: Rol's Worship"/></a></div> +<p> +Ten minutes thereafter was a lamentable wail from low on the +floor, rising to the full pitch of Rol's healthy lungs; for his +hand was gashed across, and the copious bleeding terrified him. +Then was there soothing and comforting, washing and binding, and a +modicum of scolding, till the loud outcry sank into occasional +sobs, and the child, tear-stained and subdued, was returned to the +chimney-corner settle, where Trella nodded. +</p> +<p>In the reaction after pain and fright, Rol found that the quiet of +that fire-lit corner was to his mind. Tyr, too, disdained him no +longer, but, roused by his sobs, showed all the concern and +sympathy that a dog can by licking and wistful watching. A little +shame weighed also upon his spirits. He wished he had not cried +quite so much. He remembered how once Sweyn had come home with his +arm torn down from the shoulder, and a dead bear; and how he had +never winced nor said a word, though his lips turned white with +pain. Poor little Rol gave another sighing sob over his own +faint-hearted shortcomings. +</p> +<p>The light and motion of the great fire began to tell strange +stories to the child, and the wind in the chimney roared a +corroborative note now and then. The great black mouth of the +chimney, impending high over the hearth, received as into a +mysterious gulf murky coils of smoke and brightness of aspiring +sparks; and beyond, in the high darkness, were muttering and +wailing and strange doings, so that sometimes the smoke rushed +back in panic, and curled out and up to the roof, and condensed +itself to invisibility among the rafters. And then the wind would +rage after its lost prey, and rush round the house, rattling and +shrieking at window and door. +</p> +<p>In a lull, after one such loud gust, Rol lifted his head in +surprise and listened. A lull had also come on the babel of talk, +and thus could be heard with strange distinctness a sound outside +the door—the sound of a child's voice, a child's hands. "Open, +open; let me in!" piped the little voice from low down, lower than +the handle, and the latch rattled as though a tiptoe child reached +up to it, and soft small knocks were struck. One near the door +sprang up and opened it. "No one is here," he said. Tyr lifted his +head and gave utterance to a howl, loud, prolonged, most dismal. +</p> +<p>Sweyn, not able to believe that his ears had deceived him, got up +and went to the door. It was a dark night; the clouds were heavy +with snow, that had fallen fitfully when the wind lulled. +Untrodden snow lay up to the porch; there was no sight nor sound +of any human being. Sweyn strained his eyes far and near, only to +see dark sky, pure snow, and a line of black fir trees on a hill +brow, bowing down before the wind. "It must have been the wind," +he said, and closed the door. +</p> +<p>Many faces looked scared. The sound of a child's voice had been so +distinct—and the words "Open, open; let me in!" The wind might +creak the wood, or rattle the latch, but could not speak with a +child's voice, nor knock with the soft plain blows that a plump +fist gives. And the strange unusual howl of the wolf-hound was an +omen to be feared, be the rest what it might. Strange things were +said by one and another, till the rebuke of the house-mistress +quelled them into far-off whispers. For a time after there was +uneasiness, constraint, and silence; then the chill fear thawed by +degrees, and the babble of talk flowed on again. +</p> +<p>Yet half-an-hour later a very slight noise outside the door +sufficed to arrest every hand, every tongue. Every head was +raised, every eye fixed in one direction. "It is Christian; he is +late," said Sweyn. +</p> +<p>No, no; this is a feeble shuffle, not a young man's tread. With +the sound of uncertain feet came the hard tap-tap of a stick +against the door, and the high-pitched voice of eld, "Open, open; +let me in!" Again Tyr flung up his head in a long doleful howl. +</p> +<p>Before the echo of the tapping stick and the high voice had fairly +died away, Sweyn had sprung across to the door and flung it wide. +"No one again," he said in a steady voice, though his eyes looked +startled as he stared out. He saw the lonely expanse of snow, the +clouds swagging low, and between the two the line of dark +fir-trees bowing in the wind. He closed the door without a word of +comment, and re-crossed the room. +</p> +<p>A score of blanched faces were turned to him as though he must be +solver of the enigma. He could not be unconscious of this mute +eye-questioning, and it disturbed his resolute air of composure. +He hesitated, glanced towards his mother, the house-mistress, then +back at the frightened folk, and gravely, before them all, made +the sign of the cross. There was a flutter of hands as the sign +was repeated by all, and the dead silence was stirred as by a huge +sigh, for the held breath of many was freed as though the sign +gave magic relief. +</p> +<p>Even the house-mistress was perturbed. She left her wheel and +crossed the room to her son, and spoke with him for a moment in a +low tone that none could overhear. But a moment later her voice +was high-pitched and loud, so that all might benefit by her rebuke +of the "heathen chatter" of one of the girls. Perhaps she essayed +to silence thus her own misgivings and forebodings. +</p> +<p>No other voice dared speak now with its natural fulness. Low tones +made intermittent murmurs, and now and then silence drifted over +the whole room. The handling of tools was as noiseless as might +be, and suspended on the instant if the door rattled in a gust of +wind. After a time Sweyn left his work, joined the group nearest +the door, and loitered there on the pretence of giving advice and +help to the unskilful. +</p> +<p>A man's tread was heard outside in the porch. "Christian!" said +Sweyn and his mother simultaneously, he confidently, she +authoritatively, to set the checked wheels going again. But Tyr +flung up his head with an appalling howl. +</p> +<p>"Open, open; let me in!" +</p> +<p>It was a man's voice, and the door shook and rattled as a man's +strength beat against it. Sweyn could feel the planks quivering, +as on the instant his hand was upon the door, flinging it open, to +face the blank porch, and beyond only snow and sky, and firs +aslant in the wind. +</p> +<p>He stood for a long minute with the open door in his hand. The +bitter wind swept in with its icy chill, but a deadlier chill of +fear came swifter, and seemed to freeze the beating of hearts. +Sweyn stepped back to snatch up a great bearskin cloak. +</p> +<p>"Sweyn, where are you going?" +</p> +<p>"No farther than the porch, mother," and he stepped out and closed +the door. +</p> +<p>He wrapped himself in the heavy fur, and leaning against the most +sheltered wall of the porch, steeled his nerves to face the devil +and all his works. No sound of voices came from within; the most +distinct sound was the crackle and roar of the fire. +</p> +<p>It was bitterly cold. His feet grew numb, but he forbore stamping +them into warmth lest the sound should strike panic within; nor +would he leave the porch, nor print a foot-mark on the untrodden +white that declared so absolutely how no human voices and hands +could have approached the door since snow fell two hours or more +ago. "When the wind drops there will be more snow," thought Sweyn. +</p> +<p>For the best part of an hour he kept his watch, and saw no living +thing—heard no unwonted sound. "I will freeze here no longer," he +muttered, and re-entered. +</p> +<p>One woman gave a half-suppressed scream as his hand was laid on +the latch, and then a gasp of relief as he came in. No one +questioned him, only his mother said, in a tone of forced +unconcern, "Could you not see Christian coming?" as though she +were made anxious only by the absence of her younger son. Hardly +had Sweyn stamped near to the fire than clear knocking was heard +at the door. Tyr leapt from the hearth, his eyes red as the fire, +his fangs showing white in the black jowl, his neck ridged and +bristling; and overleaping Rol, ramped at the door, barking +furiously. +</p> +<p>Outside the door a clear mellow voice was calling. Tyr's bark made +the words undistinguishable. +No one offered to stir towards the door before Sweyn. +</p> +<p>He stalked down the room resolutely, lifted the latch, and swung +back the door. +</p> +<p>A white-robed woman glided in. +</p> +<p>No wraith! Living—beautiful—young. +</p> +<p>Tyr leapt upon her. +</p> +<p>Lithely she baulked the sharp fangs with folds of her long fur +robe, and snatching from her girdle a small two-edged axe, whirled +it up for a blow of defence. +</p> +<p>Sweyn caught the dog by the collar, and dragged him off yelling +and struggling. +</p> +<p>The stranger stood in the doorway motionless, one foot set +forward, one arm flung up, till the house-mistress hurried down +the room; and Sweyn, relinquishing to others the furious Tyr, +turned again to close the door, and offer excuse for so fierce a +greeting. Then she lowered her arm, slung the axe in its place at +her waist, loosened the furs about her face, and shook over her +shoulders the long white robe—all as it were with the sway of one +movement. +</p> +<p>She was a maiden, tall and very fair. The fashion of her dress was +strange, half masculine, yet not unwomanly. A fine fur tunic, +reaching but little below the knee, was all the skirt she wore; +below were the cross-bound shoes and leggings that a hunter wears. +A white fur cap was set low upon the brows, and from its edge +strips of fur fell lappet-wise about her shoulders; two of these +at her entrance had been drawn forward and crossed about her +throat, but now, loosened and thrust back, left unhidden long +plaits of fair hair that lay forward on shoulder and breast, down +to the ivory-studded girdle where the axe gleamed. +</p> +<p>Sweyn and his mother led the stranger to the hearth without +question or sign of curiosity, till she voluntarily told her tale +of a long journey to distant kindred, a promised guide unmet, and +signals and landmarks mistaken. +</p> +<p>"Alone!" exclaimed Sweyn in astonishment. "Have you journeyed thus +far, a hundred leagues, alone?" +</p> +<p>She answered "Yes" with a little smile. +</p> +<p>"Over the hills and the wastes! Why, the folk there are savage and +wild as beasts." +</p> +<p>She dropped her hand upon her axe with a laugh of some scorn. +</p> +<p>"I fear neither man nor beast; some few fear me." And then she +told strange tales of fierce attack and defence, and of the bold +free huntress life she had led. +</p> +<p>Her words came a little slowly and deliberately, as though she +spoke in a scarce familiar tongue; now and then she hesitated, and +stopped in a phrase, as though for lack of some word. +</p> +<p>She became the centre of a group of listeners. The interest she +excited dissipated, in some degree, the dread inspired by the +mysterious voices. There was nothing ominous about this young, +bright, fair reality, though her aspect was strange. +</p> +<p>Little Rol crept near, staring at the stranger with all his might. +Unnoticed, he softly stroked and patted a corner of her soft white +robe that reached to the floor in ample folds. He laid his cheek +against it caressingly, and then edged up close to her knees. +</p> +<p>"What is your name?" he asked. +</p> +<p>The stranger's smile and ready answer, as she looked down, saved +Rol from the rebuke merited by his unmannerly question. +</p> +<p>"My real name," she said, "would be uncouth to your ears and +tongue. The folk of this country have given me another name, and +from this" (she laid her hand on the fur robe) "they call me +'White Fell.'" +</p> +<p>Little Rol repeated it to himself, stroking and patting as before. +"White Fell, White Fell." +</p> +<p>The fair face, and soft, beautiful dress pleased Rol. He knelt up, +with his eyes on her face and an air of uncertain determination, +like a robin's on a doorstep, and plumped his elbows into her lap +with a little gasp at his own audacity. +</p> +<p>"Rol!" exclaimed his aunt; but, "Oh, let him!" said White Fell, +smiling and stroking his head; and Rol stayed. +</p> +<p>He advanced farther, and panting at his own adventurousness in the +face of his aunt's authority, climbed up on to her knees. Her +welcoming arms hindered any protest. He nestled happily, fingering +the axe head, the ivory studs in her girdle, the ivory clasp at +her throat, the plaits of fair hair; rubbing his head against the +softness of her fur-clad shoulder, with a child's full confidence +in the kindness of beauty. +</p> +<p>White Fell had not uncovered her head, only knotted the pendant +fur loosely behind her neck. Rol reached up his hand towards it, +whispering her name to himself, "White Fell, White Fell," then +slid his arms round her neck, and kissed her—once—twice. She +laughed delightedly, and kissed him again. +</p> +<p>"The child plagues you?" said Sweyn. +</p> +<p>"No, indeed," she answered, with an earnestness so intense as to +seem disproportionate to the occasion. +</p> +<p>Rol settled himself again on her lap, and began to unwind the +bandage bound round his hand. He paused a little when he saw where +the blood had soaked through; then went on till his hand was bare +and the cut displayed, gaping and long, though only skin deep. He +held it up towards White Fell, desirous of her pity and sympathy. +</p> +<p>At sight of it, and the blood-stained linen, she drew in her +breath suddenly, clasped Rol to her—hard, hard—till he began to +struggle. Her face was hidden behind the boy, so that none could +see its expression. It had lighted up with a most awful glee. +</p> +<p>Afar, beyond the fir-grove, beyond the low hill behind, the absent +Christian was hastening his return. From daybreak he had been +afoot, carrying notice of a bear hunt to all the best hunters of +the farms and hamlets that lay within a radius of twelve miles. +Nevertheless, having been detained till a late hour, he now broke +into a run, going with a long smooth stride of apparent ease that +fast made the miles diminish. +</p> +<p>He entered the midnight blackness of the fir-grove with scarcely +slackened pace, though the path was invisible; and passing through +into the open again, sighted the farm lying a furlong off down the +slope. Then he sprang out freely, and almost on the instant gave +one great sideways leap, and stood still. There in the snow was +the track of a great wolf. +</p> +<p>His hand went to his knife, his only weapon. He stooped, knelt +down, to bring his eyes to the level of a beast, and peered about; +his teeth set, his heart beat a little harder than the pace of his +running insisted on. A solitary wolf, nearly always savage and of +large size, is a formidable beast that will not hesitate to attack +a single man. This wolf-track was the largest Christian had ever +seen, and, so far as he could judge, recently made. It led from +under the fir-trees down the slope. Well for him, he thought, was +the delay that had so vexed him before: well for him that he had +not passed through the dark fir-grove when that danger of jaws +lurked there. Going warily, he followed the track. +</p> +<p>It led down the slope, across a broad ice-bound stream, along the +level beyond, making towards the farm. A less precise knowledge +had doubted, and guessed that here might have come straying big +Tyr or his like; but Christian was sure, knowing better than to +mistake between footmark of dog and wolf. +</p> +<p>Straight on—straight on towards the farm. +</p> +<p>Surprised and anxious grew Christian, that a prowling wolf should +dare so near. He drew his knife and pressed on, more hastily, more +keen-eyed. Oh that Tyr were with him! +</p> +<p>Straight on, straight on, even to the very door, where the snow +failed. His heart seemed to give a great leap and then stop. There +the track <i>ended</i>. +</p> +<p>Nothing lurked in the porch, and there was no sign of return. The +firs stood straight against the sky, the clouds lay low; for the +wind had fallen and a few snowflakes came drifting down. In a +horror of surprise, Christian stood dazed a moment: then he lifted +the latch and went in. His glance took in all the old familiar +forms and faces, and with them that of the stranger, fur-clad and +beautiful. The awful truth flashed upon him: he knew what she was. +</p> +<p>Only a few were startled by the rattle of the latch as he entered. +The room was filled with bustle and movement, for it was the +supper hour, when all tools were laid aside, and trestles and +tables shifted. Christian had no knowledge of what he said and +did; he moved and spoke mechanically, half thinking that soon he +must wake from this horrible dream. Sweyn and his mother supposed +him to be cold and dead-tired, and spared all unnecessary +questions. And he found himself seated beside the hearth, opposite +that dreadful Thing that looked like a beautiful girl; watching +her every movement, curdling with horror to see her fondle the +child Rol. +</p> +<p>Sweyn stood near them both, intent upon White Fell also; but how +differently! She seemed unconscious of the gaze of both—neither +aware of the chill dread in the eyes of Christian, nor of Sweyn's +warm admiration. +</p> +<p>These two brothers, who were twins, contrasted greatly, despite +their striking likeness. They were alike in regular profile, fair +brown hair, and deep blue eyes; but Sweyn's features were perfect +as a young god's, while Christian's showed faulty details. Thus, +the line of his mouth was set too straight, the eyes shelved too +deeply back, and the contour of the face flowed in less generous +curves than Sweyn's. Their height was the same, but Christian was +too slender for perfect proportion, while Sweyn's well-knit frame, +broad shoulders, and muscular arms, made him pre-eminent for manly +beauty as well as for strength. As a hunter Sweyn was without +rival; as a fisher without rival. All the countryside acknowledged +him to be the best wrestler, rider, dancer, singer. Only in speed +could he be surpassed, and in that only by his younger brother. +All others Sweyn could distance fairly; but Christian could outrun +him easily. Ay, he could keep pace with Sweyn's most breathless +burst, and laugh and talk the while. Christian took little pride +in his fleetness of foot, counting a man's legs to be the least +worthy of his members. He had no envy of his brother's athletic +superiority, though to several feats he had made a moderate +second. He loved as only a twin can love—proud of all that Sweyn +did, content with all that Sweyn was; humbly content also that his +own great love should not be so exceedingly returned, since he +knew himself to be so far less love-worthy. +</p> +<p>Christian dared not, in the midst of women and children, launch +the horror that he knew into words. He waited to consult his +brother; but Sweyn did not, or would not, notice the signal he +made, and kept his face always turned towards White Fell. +Christian drew away from the hearth, unable to remain passive with +that dread upon him. +</p> +<p>"Where is Tyr?" he said suddenly. Then, catching sight of the dog +in a distant corner, "Why is he chained there?" +</p> +<p>"He flew at the stranger," one answered. +</p> +<p>Christian's eyes glowed. "Yes?" he said, interrogatively. +</p> +<p>"He was within an ace of having his brain knocked out." +</p> +<p>"Tyr?" +</p> +<p>"Yes; she was nimbly up with that little axe she has at her waist. +It was well for old Tyr that his master throttled him off." +</p> +<p>Christian went without a word to the corner where Tyr was chained. +The dog rose up to meet him, as piteous and indignant as a dumb +beast can be. He stroked the black head. "Good Tyr! brave dog!" +</p> +<p>They knew, they only; and the man and the dumb dog had comfort of +each other. +</p> +<p>Christian's eyes turned again towards White Fell: Tyr's also, and +he strained against the length of the chain. Christian's hand lay +on the dog's neck, and he felt it ridge and bristle with the +quivering of impotent fury. Then he began to quiver in like +manner, with a fury born of reason, not instinct; as impotent +morally as was Tyr physically. Oh! the woman's form that he dare +not touch! Anything but that, and he with Tyr would be free to +kill or be killed. +</p> +<p>Then he returned to ask fresh questions. +</p> +<p>"How long has the stranger been here?" +</p> +<p>"She came about half-an-hour before you." +</p> +<p>"Who opened the door to her?" +</p> +<p>"Sweyn: no one else dared." +</p> +<p>The tone of the answer was mysterious. +</p> +<p>"Why?" queried Christian. "Has anything strange happened? Tell +me." +</p> +<p>For answer he was told in a low undertone of the summons at the +door thrice repeated without human agency; and of Tyr's ominous +howls; and of Sweyn's fruitless watch outside. +</p> +<p>Christian turned towards his brother in a torment of impatience +for a word apart. The board was spread, and Sweyn was leading +White Fell to the guest's place. This was more awful: she would +break bread with them under the roof-tree! +</p> +<p>He started forward, and touching Sweyn's arm, whispered an urgent +entreaty. Sweyn stared, and shook his head in angry impatience. +</p> +<p>Thereupon Christian would take no morsel of food. +</p> +<p>His opportunity came at last. White Fell questioned of the +landmarks of the country, and of one Cairn Hill, which was an +appointed meeting-place at which she was due that night. The +house-mistress and Sweyn both exclaimed. +</p> +<p>"It is three long miles away," said Sweyn; "with no place for +shelter but a wretched hut. Stay with us this night, and I will +show you the way to-morrow." +</p> +<p>White Fell seemed to hesitate. "Three miles," she said; "then I +should be able to see or hear a signal." +</p> +<p>"I will look out," said Sweyn; "then, if there be no signal, you +must not leave us." +</p> +<p>He went to the door. Christian rose silently, and followed him +out. +</p> +<p>"Sweyn, do you know what she is?" +</p> +<p>Sweyn, surprised at the vehement grasp, and low hoarse voice, made +answer: +</p> +<p>"She? Who? White Fell?" +</p> +<p>"Yes." +</p> +<p>"She is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen." +</p> +<p>"She is a Were-Wolf." +</p> +<p>Sweyn burst out laughing. "Are you mad?" he asked. +</p> +<p>"No; here, see for yourself." +</p> +<p>Christian drew him out of the porch, pointing to the snow where +the footmarks had been. Had been, for now they were not. Snow was +falling fast, and every dint was blotted out. +</p> +<p>"Well?" asked Sweyn. +</p> +<p>"Had you come when I signed to you, you would have seen for +yourself." +</p> +<p>"Seen what?" +</p> +<p>"The footprints of a wolf leading up to the door; none leading +away." +</p> +<p>It was impossible not to be startled by the tone alone, though it +was hardly above a whisper. Sweyn eyed his brother anxiously, but +in the darkness could make nothing of his face. Then he laid his +hands kindly and re-assuringly on Christian's shoulders and felt +how he was quivering with excitement and horror. +</p> +<p>"One sees strange things," he said, "when the cold has got into +the brain behind the eyes; you came in cold and worn out." +</p> +<p>"No," interrupted Christian. "I saw the track first on the brow of +the slope, and followed it down right here to the door. This is no +delusion." +</p> +<p>Sweyn in his heart felt positive that it was. Christian was given +to day-dreams and strange fancies, though never had he been +possessed with so mad a notion before. +</p> +<p>"Don't you believe me?" said Christian desperately. "You must. I +swear it is sane truth. Are you blind? Why, even Tyr knows." +</p> +<p>"You will be clearer headed to-morrow after a night's rest. Then +come too, if you will, with White Fell, to the Hill Cairn; and if +you have doubts still, watch and follow, and see what footprints +she leaves." +</p> +<p>Galled by Sweyn's evident contempt Christian turned abruptly to +the door. Sweyn caught him back. +</p> +<p>"What now, Christian? What are you going to do?" +</p> +<p>"You do not believe me; my mother shall." +</p> +<p>Sweyn's grasp tightened. "You shall not tell her," he said +authoritatively. +</p> +<p>Customarily Christian was so docile to his brother's mastery that +it was now a surprising thing when he wrenched himself free +vigorously, and said as determinedly as Sweyn, "She shall know!" +but Sweyn was nearer the door and would not let him pass. +</p> +<p>"There has been scare enough for one night already. If this notion +of yours will keep, broach it to-morrow." Christian would not +yield. +</p> +<p>"Women are so easily scared," pursued Sweyn, "and are ready to +believe any folly without shadow of proof. Be a man, Christian, +and fight this notion of a Were-Wolf by yourself." +</p> +<p>"If you would believe me," began Christian. +</p> +<p>"I believe you to be a fool," said Sweyn, losing patience. +"Another, who was not your brother, might believe you to be a +knave, and guess that you had transformed White Fell into a +Were-Wolf because she smiled more readily on me than on you." +</p> +<p>The jest was not without foundation, for the grace of White Fell's +bright looks had been bestowed on him, on Christian never a whit. +Sweyn's coxcombery was always frank, and most forgiveable, and not +without fair colour. +</p> +<p>"If you want an ally," continued Sweyn, "confide in old Trella. +Out of her stores of wisdom, if her memory holds good, she can +instruct you in the orthodox manner of tackling a Were-Wolf. If I +remember aright, you should watch the suspected person till +midnight, when the beast's form must be resumed, and retained ever +after if a human eye sees the change; or, better still, sprinkle +hands and feet with holy water, which is certain death. Oh! never +fear, but old Trella will be equal to the occasion." +</p> +<p>Sweyn's contempt was no longer good-humoured; some touch of +irritation or resentment rose at this monstrous doubt of White +Fell. But Christian was too deeply distressed to take offence. +</p> +<p>"You speak of them as old wives' tales; but if you had seen the +proof I have seen, you would be ready at least to wish them true, +if not also to put them to the test." +</p> +<p>"Well," said Sweyn, with a laugh that had a little sneer in it, +"put them to the test! I will not object to that, if you will only +keep your notions to yourself. Now, Christian, give me your word +for silence, and we will freeze here no longer." +</p> +<p>Christian remained silent. +</p> +<p>Sweyn put his hands on his shoulders again and vainly tried to see +his face in the darkness. +</p> +<p>"We have never quarrelled yet, Christian?" +</p> +<p>"I have never quarrelled," returned the other, aware for the first +time that his dictatorial brother had sometimes offered occasion +for quarrel, had he been ready to take it. +</p> +<p>"Well," said Sweyn emphatically, "if you speak against White Fell +to any other, as to-night you have spoken to me—we shall." +</p> +<p>He delivered the words like an ultimatum, turned sharp round, and +re-entered the house. Christian, more fearful and wretched than +before, followed. +</p> +<p>"Snow is falling fast: not a single light is to be seen." +</p> +<p>White Fell's eyes passed over Christian without apparent notice, +and turned bright and shining upon Sweyn. +</p> +<p>"Nor any signal to be heard?" she queried. "Did you not hear the +sound of a sea-horn?" +</p> +<p>"I saw nothing, and heard nothing; and signal or no signal, the +heavy snow would keep you here perforce." +</p> +<p>She smiled her thanks beautifully. And Christian's heart sank like +lead with a deadly foreboding, as he noted what a light was +kindled in Sweyn's eyes by her smile. +</p> +<p>That night, when all others slept, Christian, the weariest of all, +watched outside the guest-chamber till midnight was past. No +sound, not the faintest, could be heard. Could the old tale be +true of the midnight change? What was on the other side of the +door, a woman or a beast? he would have given his right hand to +know. Instinctively he laid his hand on the latch, and drew it +softly, though believing that bolts fastened the inner side. The +door yielded to his hand; he stood on the threshold; a keen gust +of air cut at him; the window stood open; the room was empty. +</p> +<p>So Christian could sleep with a somewhat lightened heart. +</p> +<p>In the morning there was surprise and conjecture when White Fell's +absence was discovered. Christian held his peace. Not even to his +brother did he say how he knew that she had fled before midnight; +and Sweyn, though evidently greatly chagrined, seemed to disdain +reference to the subject of Christian's fears. +</p> +<p>The elder brother alone joined the bear hunt; Christian found +pretext to stay behind. Sweyn, being out of humour, manifested his +contempt by uttering not a single expostulation. +</p> +<p>All that day, and for many a day after, Christian would never go +out of sight of his home. Sweyn alone noticed how he manœuvred for +this, and was clearly annoyed by it. White Fell's name was never +mentioned between them, though not seldom was it heard in general +talk. Hardly a day passed but little Rol asked when White Fell +would come again: pretty White Fell, who kissed like a snowflake. +And if Sweyn answered, Christian would be quite sure that the +light in his eyes, kindled by White Fell's smile, had not yet died +out. +</p> +<p>Little Rol! Naughty, merry, fairhaired little Rol. A day came when +his feet raced over the threshold never to return; when his +chatter and laugh were heard no more; when tears of anguish were +wept by eyes that never would see his bright head again: never +again, living or dead. +</p> +<p>He was seen at dusk for the last time, escaping from the house +with his puppy, in freakish rebellion against old Trella. Later, +when his absence had begun to cause anxiety, his puppy crept back +to the farm, cowed, whimpering and yelping, a pitiful, dumb lump +of terror, without intelligence or courage to guide the frightened +search. +</p> +<p>Rol was never found, nor any trace of him. Where he had perished +was never known; how he had perished was known only by an awful +guess—a wild beast had devoured him. +</p> +<p>Christian heard the conjecture "a wolf"; and a horrible certainty +flashed upon him that he knew what wolf it was. He tried to +declare what he knew, but Sweyn saw him start at the words with +white face and struggling lips; and, guessing his purpose, pulled +him back, and kept him silent, hardly, by his imperious grip and +wrathful eyes, and one low whisper. +</p> +<p>That Christian should retain his most irrational suspicion against +beautiful White Fell was, to Sweyn, evidence of a weak obstinacy +of mind that would but thrive upon expostulation and argument. But +this evident intention to direct the passions of grief and anguish +to a hatred and fear of the fair stranger, such as his own, was +intolerable, and Sweyn set his will against it. Again Christian +yielded to his brother's stronger words and will, and against his +own judgment consented to silence. +</p> +<p>Repentance came before the new moon, the first of the year, was +old. White Fell came again, smiling as she entered, as though +assured of a glad and kindly welcome; and, in truth, there was +only one who saw again her fair face and strange white garb +without pleasure. Sweyn's face glowed with delight, while +Christian's grew pale and rigid as death. He had given his word to +keep silence; but he had not thought that she would dare to come +again. Silence was impossible, face to face with that Thing, +impossible. Irrepressibly he cried out: +</p> +<p>"Where is Rol?" +</p> +<p>Not a quiver disturbed White Fell's face. She heard, yet remained +bright and tranquil. Sweyn's eyes flashed round at his brother +dangerously. Among the women some tears fell at the poor child's +name; but none caught alarm from its sudden utterance, for the +thought of Rol rose naturally. Where was little Rol, who had +nestled in the stranger's arms, kissing her; and watched for her +since; and prattled of her daily? +</p> +<p>Christian went out silently. One only thing there was that he +could do, and he must not delay. His horror overmastered any +curiosity to hear White Fell's smooth excuses and smiling +apologies for her strange and uncourteous departure; or her easy +tale of the circumstances of her return; or to watch her bearing +as she heard the sad tale of little Rol. +</p> +<p>The swiftest runner of the country-side had started on his hardest +race: little less than three leagues and back, which he reckoned +to accomplish in two hours, though the night was moonless and the +way rugged. He rushed against the still cold air till it felt like +a wind upon his face. The dim homestead sank below the ridges at +his back, and fresh ridges of snowlands rose out of the obscure +horizon-level to drive past him as the stirless air drove, and +sink away behind into obscure level again. He took no conscious +heed of landmarks, not even when all sign of a path was gone under +depths of snow. His will was set to reach his goal with unexampled +speed; and thither by instinct his physical forces bore him, +without one definite thought to guide. +</p> +<p>And the idle brain lay passive, inert, receiving into its vacancy +restless siftings of past sights and sounds: Rol, weeping, +laughing, playing, coiled in the arms of that dreadful Thing: +Tyr—O Tyr!—white fangs in the black jowl: the women who wept on +The foolish puppy, precious for the child's last touch: footprints +from pine wood to door: the smiling face among furs, of such +womanly beauty—smiling—smiling: and Sweyn's face. +</p> +<p>"Sweyn, Sweyn, O Sweyn, my brother!" +</p> +<p>Sweyn's angry laugh possessed his ear within the sound of the wind +of his speed; Sweyn's scorn assailed more quick and keen than the +biting cold at his throat. And yet he was unimpressed by any +thought of how Sweyn's anger and scorn would rise, if this errand +were known. +</p> +<p>Sweyn was a sceptic. His utter disbelief in Christian's testimony +regarding the footprints was based upon positive scepticism. His +reason refused to bend in accepting the possibility of the +supernatural materialised. That a living beast could ever be other +than palpably bestial—pawed, toothed, shagged, and eared as such, +was to him incredible; far more that a human presence could be +transformed from its god-like aspect, upright, free-handed, with +brows, and speech, and laughter. The wild and fearful legends that +he had known from childhood and then believed, he regarded now as +built upon facts distorted, overlaid by imagination, and quickened +by superstition. Even the strange summons at the threshold, that +he himself had vainly answered, was, after the first shock of +surprise, rationally explained by him as malicious foolery on the +part of some clever trickster, who withheld the key to the enigma. +</p> +<p>To the younger brother all life was a spiritual mystery, veiled +from his clear knowledge by the density of flesh. Since he knew +his own body to be linked to the complex and antagonistic forces +that constitute one soul, it seemed to him not impossibly strange +that one spiritual force should possess divers forms for widely +various manifestation. Nor, to him, was it great effort to believe +that as pure water washes away all natural foulness, so water, +holy by consecration, must needs cleanse God's world from that +supernatural evil Thing. Therefore, faster than ever man's foot +had covered those leagues, he sped under the dark, still night, +over the waste, trackless snow-ridges to the far-away church, +where salvation lay in the holy-water stoup at the door. His faith +was as firm as any that wrought miracles in days past, simple as a +child's wish, strong as a man's will. +</p> +<p>He was hardly missed during these hours, every second of which was +by him fulfilled to its utmost extent by extremest effort that +sinews and nerves could attain. Within the homestead the while, +the easy moments went bright with words and looks of unwonted +animation, for the kindly, hospitable instincts of the inmates +were roused into cordial expression of welcome and interest by the +grace and beauty of the returned stranger. +</p> +<p>But Sweyn was eager and earnest, with more than a host's courteous +warmth. The impression that at her first coming had charmed him, +that had lived since through memory, deepened now in her actual +presence. Sweyn, the matchless among men, acknowledged in this +fair White Fell a spirit high and bold as his own, and a frame so +firm and capable that only bulk was lacking for equal strength. +Yet the white skin was moulded most smoothly, without such +muscular swelling as made his might evident. Such love as his +frank self-love could concede was called forth by an ardent +admiration for this supreme stranger. More admiration than love +was in his passion, and therefore he was free from a lover's +hesitancy and delicate reserve and doubts. Frankly and boldly he +courted her favour by looks and tones, and an address that came of +natural ease, needless of skill by practice. +</p> +<p>Nor was she a woman to be wooed otherwise. Tender whispers and +sighs would never gain her ear; but her eyes would brighten and +shine if she heard of a brave feat, and her prompt hand in +sympathy fall swiftly on the axe-haft and clasp it hard. That +movement ever fired Sweyn's admiration anew; he watched for it, +strove to elicit it, and glowed when it came. Wonderful and +beautiful was that wrist, slender and steel-strong; also the +smooth shapely hand, that curved so fast and firm, ready to deal +instant death. +</p> +<p>Desiring to feel the pressure of these hands, this bold lover +schemed with palpable directness, proposing that she should hear +how their hunting songs were sung, with a chorus that signalled +hands to be clasped. So his splendid voice gave the verses, and, +as the chorus was taken up, he claimed her hands, and, even +through the easy grip, felt, as he desired, the strength that was +latent, and the vigour that quickened the very fingertips, as the +song fired her, and her voice was caught out of her by the +rhythmic swell, and rang clear on the top of the closing surge. +</p> +<p>Afterwards she sang alone. For contrast, or in the pride of +swaying moods by her voice, she chose a mournful song that drifted +along in a minor chant, sad as a wind that dirges: +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Oh, let me go!</p> +<p>Around spin wreaths of snow;</p> +<p>The dark earth sleeps below.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Far up the plain</p> +<p>Moans on a voice of pain:</p> +<p>'Where shall my babe be lain?'</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"In my white breast</p> +<p>Lay the sweet life to rest!</p> +<p>Lay, where it can lie best!</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"'Hush! hush its cries!</p> +<p>Dense night is on the skies:</p> +<p>Two stars are in thine eyes.'</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Come, babe, away!</p> +<p>But lie thou till dawn be grey,</p> +<p>Who must be dead by day.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"This cannot last;</p> +<p>But, ere the sickening blast,</p> +<p>All sorrow shall be past;</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"And kings shall be</p> +<p>Low bending at thy knee,</p> +<p>Worshipping life from thee.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"For men long sore</p> +<p>To hope of what's before,—</p> +<p>To leave the things of yore.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Mine, and not thine,</p> +<p>How deep their jewels shine!</p> +<p>Peace laps thy head, not mine."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p> +Old Trella came tottering from her corner, shaken to additional +palsy by an aroused memory. She strained her dim eyes towards the +singer, and then bent her head, that the one ear yet sensible to +sound might avail of every note. At the close, groping forward, +she murmured with the high-pitched quaver of old age: +</p> +<p>"So she sang, my Thora; my last and brightest. What is she like, +she whose voice is like my dead Thora's? Are her eyes blue?" +</p> +<p>"Blue as the sky." +</p> +<p>"So were my Thora's! Is her hair fair, and in plaits to the +waist?" "Even so," answered White Fell herself, and met the +advancing hands with her own, and guided them to corroborate her +words by touch. +</p> +<p>"Like my dead Thora's," repeated the old woman; and then her +trembling hands rested on the fur-clad shoulders, and she bent +forward and kissed the smooth fair face that White Fell upturned, +nothing loth, to receive and return the caress. +</p> +<p>So Christian saw them as he entered. +</p> +<p>He stood a moment. After the starless darkness and the icy night +air, and the fierce silent two hours' race, his senses reeled on +sudden entrance into warmth, and light, and the cheery hum of +voices. A sudden unforeseen anguish assailed him, as now first he +entertained the possibility of being overmatched by her wiles and +her daring, if at the approach of pure death she should start up +at bay transformed to a terrible beast, and achieve a savage glut +at the last. He looked with horror and pity on the harmless, +helpless folk, so unwitting of outrage to their comfort and +security. The dreadful Thing in their midst, that was veiled from +their knowledge by womanly beauty, was a centre of pleasant +interest. There, before him, signally impressive, was poor old +Trella, weakest and feeblest of all, in fond nearness. And a +moment might bring about the revelation of a monstrous horror—a +ghastly, deadly danger, set loose and at bay, in a circle of girls +and women and careless defenceless men: so hideous and terrible a +thing as might crack the brain, or curdle the heart stone dead. +</p> +<p>And he alone of the throng prepared! +</p> +<div class="figure"> +<a name="wfescape.png" href="images/wfescape.png"><img + src="images/wfescape-tn.png" alt="Illustration: White Fell's Escape"/></a></div> +<p> +For one breathing space he faltered, no longer than that, while +over him swept the agony of compunction that yet could not make +him surrender his purpose. +</p> +<p>He alone? Nay, but Tyr also; and he crossed to the dumb sole +sharer of his knowledge. +</p> +<p>So timeless is thought that a few seconds only lay between his +lifting of the latch and his loosening of Tyr's collar; but in +those few seconds succeeding his first glance, as lightning-swift +had been the impulses of others, their motion as quick and sure. +Sweyn's vigilant eye had darted upon him, and instantly his every +fibre was alert with hostile instinct; and, half divining, half +incredulous, of Christian's object in stooping to Tyr, he came +hastily, wary, wrathful, resolute to oppose the malice of his +wild-eyed brother. +</p> +<p>But beyond Sweyn rose White Fell, blanching white as her furs, and +with eyes grown fierce and wild. She leapt down the room to the +door, whirling her long robe closely to her. "Hark!" she panted. +"The signal horn! Hark, I must go!" as she snatched at the latch +to be out and away. +</p> +<p>For one precious moment Christian had hesitated on the +half-loosened collar; for, except the womanly form were exchanged +for the bestial, Tyr's jaws would gnash to rags his honour of +manhood. Then he heard her voice, and turned—too late. +</p> +<p>As she tugged at the door, he sprang across grasping his flask, +but Sweyn dashed between, and caught him back irresistibly, so +that a most frantic effort only availed to wrench one arm free. +With that, on the impulse of sheer despair, he cast at her with +all his force. The door swung behind her, and the flask flew into +fragments against it. Then, as Sweyn's grasp slackened, and he met +the questioning astonishment of surrounding faces, with a hoarse +inarticulate cry: "God help us all!" he said. "She is a +Were-Wolf." +</p> +<p>Sweyn turned upon him, "Liar, coward!" and his hands gripped his +brother's throat with deadly force, as though the spoken word +could be killed so; and as Christian struggled, lifted him clear +off his feet and flung him crashing backward. So furious was he, +that, as his brother lay motionless, he stirred him roughly with +his foot, till their mother came between, crying shame; and yet +then he stood by, his teeth set, his brows knit, his hands +clenched, ready to enforce silence again violently, as Christian +rose staggering and bewildered. +</p> +<p>But utter silence and submission were more than he expected, and +turned his anger into contempt for one so easily cowed and held in +subjection by mere force. "He is mad!" he said, turning on his +heel as he spoke, so that he lost his mother's look of pained +reproach at this sudden free utterance of what was a lurking dread +within her. +</p> +<p>Christian was too spent for the effort of speech. His hard-drawn +breath laboured in great sobs; his limbs were powerless and +unstrung in utter relax after hard service. Failure in his +endeavour induced a stupor of misery and despair. In addition was +the wretched humiliation of open violence and strife with his +brother, and the distress of hearing misjudging contempt expressed +without reserve; for he was aware that Sweyn had turned to allay +the scared excitement half by imperious mastery, half by +explanation and argument, that showed painful disregard of +brotherly consideration. All this unkindness of his twin he +charged upon the fell Thing who had wrought this their first +dissension, and, ah! most terrible thought, interposed between +them so effectually, that Sweyn was wilfully blind and deaf on her +account, resentful of interference, arbitrary beyond reason. +</p> +<p>Dread and perplexity unfathomable darkened upon him; unshared, the +burden was overwhelming: a foreboding of unspeakable calamity, +based upon his ghastly discovery, bore down upon him, crushing out +hope of power to withstand impending fate. +</p> +<p>Sweyn the while was observant of his brother, despite the +continual check of finding, turn and glance when he would, +Christian's eyes always upon him, with a strange look of helpless +distress, discomposing enough to the angry aggressor. "Like a +beaten dog!" he said to himself, rallying contempt to withstand +compunction. Observation set him wondering on Christian's +exhausted condition. The heavy labouring breath and the slack +inert fall of the limbs told surely of unusual and prolonged +exertion. And then why had close upon two hours' absence been +followed by open hostility against White Fell? +</p> +<p>Suddenly, the fragments of the flask giving a clue, he guessed +all, and faced about to stare at his brother in amaze. He forgot +that the motive scheme was against White Fell, demanding derision +and resentment from him; that was swept out of remembrance by +astonishment and admiration for the feat of speed and endurance. +In eagerness to question he inclined to attempt a generous part +and frankly offer to heal the breach; but Christian's depression +and sad following gaze provoked him to self-justification by +recalling the offence of that outrageous utterance against White +Fell; and the impulse passed. Then other considerations counselled +silence; and afterwards a humour possessed him to wait and see how +Christian would find opportunity to proclaim his performance and +establish the fact, without exciting ridicule on account of the +absurdity of the errand. +</p> +<p>This expectation remained unfulfilled. Christian never attempted +the proud avowal that would have placed his feat on record to be +told to the next generation. +</p> +<p>That night Sweyn and his mother talked long and late together, +shaping into certainty the suspicion that Christian's mind had +lost its balance, and discussing the evident cause. For Sweyn, +declaring his own love for White Fell, suggested that his +unfortunate brother, with a like passion, they being twins in +loves as in birth, had through jealousy and despair turned from +love to hate, until reason failed at the strain, and a craze +developed, which the malice and treachery of madness made a +serious and dangerous force. +</p> +<p>So Sweyn theorised, convincing himself as he spoke; convincing +afterwards others who advanced doubts against White Fell; +fettering his judgment by his advocacy, and by his staunch defence +of her hurried flight silencing his own inner consciousness of the +unaccountability of her action. +</p> +<p>But a little time and Sweyn lost his vantage in the shock of a +fresh horror at the homestead. Trella was no more, and her end a +mystery. The poor old woman crawled out in a bright gleam to visit +a bed-ridden gossip living beyond the fir-grove. Under the trees +she was last seen, halting for her companion, sent back for a +forgotten present. Quick alarm sprang, calling every man to the +search. Her stick was found among the brushwood only a few paces +from the path, but no track or stain, for a gusty wind was sifting +the snow from the branches, and hid all sign of how she came by +her death. +</p> +<p>So panic-stricken were the farm folk that none dared go singly on +the search. Known danger could be braced, but not this stealthy +Death that walked by day invisible, that cut off alike the child +in his play and the aged woman so near to her quiet grave. +</p> +<p>"Rol she kissed; Trella she kissed!" So rang Christian's frantic +cry again and again, till Sweyn dragged him away and strove to +keep him apart, albeit in his agony of grief and remorse he +accused himself wildly as answerable for the tragedy, and gave +clear proof that the charge of madness was well founded, if +strange looks and desperate, incoherent words were evidence +enough. +</p> +<p>But thenceforward all Sweyn's reasoning and mastery could not +uphold White Fell above suspicion. He was not called upon to +defend her from accusation when Christian had been brought to +silence again; but he well knew the significance of this fact, +that her name, formerly uttered freely and often, he never heard +now: it was huddled away into whispers that he could not catch. +</p> +<p>The passing of time did not sweep away the superstitious fears +that Sweyn despised. He was angry and anxious; eager that White +Fell should return, and, merely by her bright gracious presence, +reinstate herself in favour; but doubtful if all his authority and +example could keep from her notice an altered aspect of welcome; +and he foresaw clearly that Christian would prove unmanageable, +and might be capable of some dangerous outbreak. +</p> +<p>For a time the twins' variance was marked, on Sweyn's part by an +air of rigid indifference, on Christian's by heavy downcast +silence, and a nervous apprehensive observation of his brother. +Superadded to his remorse and foreboding, Sweyn's displeasure +weighed upon him intolerably, and the remembrance of their violent +rupture was a ceaseless misery. The elder brother, self-sufficient +and insensitive, could little know how deeply his unkindness +stabbed. A depth and force of affection such as Christian's was +unknown to him. The loyal subservience that he could not +appreciate had encouraged him to domineer; this strenuous +opposition to his reason and will was accounted as furious malice, +if not sheer insanity. +</p> +<p>Christian's surveillance galled him incessantly, and embarrassment +and danger he foresaw as the outcome. Therefore, that suspicion +might be lulled, he judged it wise to make overtures for peace. +Most easily done. A little kindliness, a few evidences of +consideration, a slight return of the old brotherly imperiousness, +and Christian replied by a gratefulness and relief that might have +touched him had he understood all, but instead, increased his +secret contempt. +</p> +<p>So successful was this finesse, that when, late on a day, a +message summoning Christian to a distance was transmitted by +Sweyn, no doubt of its genuineness occurred. When, his errand +proved useless, he set out to return, mistake or misapprehension +was all that he surmised. Not till he sighted the homestead, lying +low between the night-grey snow ridges, did vivid recollection of +the time when he had tracked that horror to the door rouse an +intense dread, and with it a hardly-defined suspicion. +</p> +<p>His grasp tightened on the bear-spear that he carried as a staff; +every sense was alert, every muscle strung; excitement urged him +on, caution checked him, and the two governed his long stride, +swiftly, noiselessly, to the climax he felt was at hand. +</p> +<p>As he drew near to the outer gates, a light shadow stirred and +went, as though the grey of the snow had taken detached motion. A +darker shadow stayed and faced Christian, striking his life-blood +chill with utmost despair. +</p> +<p>Sweyn stood before him, and surely, the shadow that went was White +Fell. +</p> +<p>They had been together—close. Had she not been in his arms, near +enough for lips to meet? +</p> +<p>There was no moon, but the stars gave light enough to show that +Sweyn's face was flushed and elate. The flush remained, though the +expression changed quickly at sight of his brother. How, if +Christian had seen all, should one of his frenzied outbursts be +met and managed: by resolution? by indifference? He halted between +the two, and as a result, he swaggered. +</p> +<p>"White Fell?" questioned Christian, hoarse and breathless. +</p> +<p>"Yes?" +</p> +<p>Sweyn's answer was a query, with an intonation that implied he was +clearing the ground for action. +</p> +<p>From Christian came: "Have you kissed her?" like a bolt direct, +staggering Sweyn by its sheer prompt temerity. +</p> +<p>He flushed yet darker, and yet half-smiled over this earnest of +success he had won. Had there been really between himself and +Christian the rivalry that he imagined, his face had enough of the +insolence of triumph to exasperate jealous rage. +</p> +<p>"You dare ask this!" +</p> +<p>"Sweyn, O Sweyn, I must know! You have!" +</p> +<p>The ring of despair and anguish in his tone angered Sweyn, +misconstruing it. Jealousy urging to such presumption was +intolerable. +</p> +<p>"Mad fool!" he said, constraining himself no longer. "Win for +yourself a woman to kiss. Leave mine without question. Such an one +as I should desire to kiss is such an one as shall never allow a +kiss to you." +</p> +<p>Then Christian fully understood his supposition. +</p> +<p>"I—I!" he cried. "White Fell—that deadly Thing! Sweyn, are you +blind, mad? I would save you from her: a Were-Wolf!" +</p> +<p>Sweyn maddened again at the accusation—a dastardly way of +revenge, as he conceived; and instantly, for the second time, the +brothers were at strife violently. +</p> +<p>But Christian was now too desperate to be scrupulous; for a dim +glimpse had shot a possibility into his mind, and to be free to +follow it the striking of his brother was a necessity. Thank God! +he was armed, and so Sweyn's equal. +</p> +<div class="figure"> +<a name="race.png" href="images/race.png"><img src="images/race-tn.png" + alt="Illustration: The Race"/></a></div> +<p> +Facing his assailant with the bear-spear, he struck up his arms, +and with the butt end hit hard so that he fell. The matchless +runner leapt away on the instant, to follow a forlorn hope. Sweyn, +on regaining his feet, was as amazed as angry at this unaccountable +flight. He knew in his heart that his brother was no +coward, and that it was unlike him to shrink from an encounter +because defeat was certain, and cruel humiliation from a +vindictive victor probable. Of the uselessness of pursuit he was +well aware: he must abide his chagrin, content to know that his +time for advantage would come. Since White Fell had parted to the +right, Christian to the left, the event of a sequent encounter did +not occur to him. And now Christian, acting on the dim glimpse he +had had, just as Sweyn turned upon him, of something that moved +against the sky along the ridge behind the homestead, was staking +his only hope on a chance, and his own superlative speed. If what +he saw was really White Fell, he guessed she was bending her steps +towards the open wastes; and there was just a possibility that, by +a straight dash, and a desperate perilous leap over a sheer bluff, +he might yet meet her or head her. And then: he had no further +thought. +</p> +<p>It was past, the quick, fierce race, and the chance of death at +the leap; and he halted in a hollow to fetch his breath and to +look: did she come? had she gone? +</p> +<p>She came. +</p> +<p>She came with a smooth, gliding, noiseless speed, that was neither +walking nor running; her arms were folded in her furs that were +drawn tight about her body; the white lappets from her head were +wrapped and knotted closely beneath her face; her eyes were set on +a far distance. So she went till the even sway of her going was +startled to a pause by Christian. +</p> +<p>"Fell!" +</p> +<p>She drew a quick, sharp breath at the sound of her name thus +mutilated, and faced Sweyn's brother. Her eyes glittered; her +upper lip was lifted, and shewed the teeth. The half of her name, +impressed with an ominous sense as uttered by him, warned her of +the aspect of a deadly foe. Yet she cast loose her robes till they +trailed ample, and spoke as a mild woman. +</p> +<p>"What would you?" +</p> +<p>Then Christian answered with his solemn dreadful accusation: +</p> +<p>"You kissed Rol—and Rol is dead! You kissed Trella: she is dead! +You have kissed Sweyn, my brother; but he shall not die!" +</p> +<p>He added: "You may live till midnight." +</p> +<p>The edge of the teeth and the glitter of the eyes stayed a moment, +and her right hand also slid down to the axe haft. Then, without a +word, she swerved from him, and sprang out and away swiftly over +the snow. +</p> +<p>And Christian sprang out and away, and followed her swiftly over +the snow, keeping behind, but half-a-stride's length from her +side. +</p> +<p>So they went running together, silent, towards the vast wastes of +snow, where no living thing but they two moved under the stars of +night. +</p> +<p>Never before had Christian so rejoiced in his powers. The gift of +speed, and the training of use and endurance were priceless to him +now. Though midnight was hours away, he was confident that, go +where that Fell Thing would, hasten as she would, she could not +outstrip him nor escape from him. Then, when came the time for +transformation, when the woman's form made no longer a shield +against a man's hand, he could slay or be slain to save Sweyn. He +had struck his dear brother in dire extremity, but he could not, +though reason urged, strike a woman. +</p> +<p>For one mile, for two miles they ran: White Fell ever foremost, +Christian ever at equal distance from her side, so near that, now +and again, her out-flying furs touched him. She spoke no word; nor +he. She never turned her head to look at him, nor swerved to evade +him; but, with set face looking forward, sped straight on, over +rough, over smooth, aware of his nearness by the regular beat of +his feet, and the sound of his breath behind. +</p> +<p>In a while she quickened her pace. From the first, Christian had +judged of her speed as admirable, yet with exulting security in +his own excelling and enduring whatever her efforts. But, when the +pace increased, he found himself put to the test as never had he +been before in any race. Her feet, indeed, flew faster than his; +it was only by his length of stride that he kept his place at her +side. But his heart was high and resolute, and he did not fear +failure yet. +</p> +<p>So the desperate race flew on. Their feet struck up the powdery +snow, their breath smoked into the sharp clear air, and they were +gone before the air was cleared of snow and vapour. Now and then +Christian glanced up to judge, by the rising of the stars, of the +coming of midnight. So long—so long! +</p> +<p>White Fell held on without slack. She, it was evident, with +confidence in her speed proving matchless, as resolute to outrun +her pursuer as he to endure till midnight and fulfil his purpose. +And Christian held on, still self-assured. He could not fail; he +would not fail. To avenge Rol and Trella was motive enough for him +to do what man could do; but for Sweyn more. She had kissed Sweyn, +but he should not die too: with Sweyn to save he could not fail. +</p> +<p>Never before was such a race as this; no, not when in old Greece +man and maid raced together with two fates at stake; for the hard +running was sustained unabated, while star after star rose and +went wheeling up towards midnight, for one hour, for two hours. +</p> +<p>Then Christian saw and heard what shot him through with fear. +Where a fringe of trees hung round a slope he saw something dark +moving, and heard a yelp, followed by a full horrid cry, and the +dark spread out upon the snow, a pack of wolves in pursuit. +</p> +<p>Of the beasts alone he had little cause for fear; at the pace he +held he could distance them, four-footed though they were. But of +White Fell's wiles he had infinite apprehension, for how might she +not avail herself of the savage jaws of these wolves, akin as they +were to half her nature. She vouchsafed to them nor look nor sign; +but Christian, on an impulse to assure himself that she should not +escape him, caught and held the back-flung edge of her furs, +running still. +</p> +<p>She turned like a flash with a beastly snarl, teeth and eyes +gleaming again. Her axe shone, on the upstroke, on the downstroke, +as she hacked at his hand. She had lopped it off at the wrist, but +that he parried with the bear-spear. Even then, she shore through +the shaft and shattered the bones of the hand at the same blow, so +that he loosed perforce. +</p> +<p>Then again they raced on as before, Christian not losing a pace, +though his left hand swung useless, bleeding and broken. +</p> +<p>The snarl, indubitable, though modified from a woman's organs, the +vicious fury revealed in teeth and eyes, the sharp arrogant pain +of her maiming blow, caught away Christian's heed of the beasts +behind, by striking into him close vivid realisation of the +infinitely greater danger that ran before him in that deadly +Thing. +</p> +<p>When he bethought him to look behind, lo! the pack had but reached +their tracks, and instantly slunk aside, cowed; the yell of +pursuit changing to yelps and whines. So abhorrent was that fell +creature to beast as to man. +</p> +<p>She had drawn her furs more closely to her, disposing them so +that, instead of flying loose to her heels, no drapery hung lower +than her knees, and this without a check to her wonderful speed, +nor embarrassment by the cumbering of the folds. She held her head +as before; her lips were firmly set, only the tense nostrils gave +her breath; not a sign of distress witnessed to the long +sustaining of that terrible speed. +</p> +<p>But on Christian by now the strain was telling palpably. His head +weighed heavy, and his breath came labouring in great sobs; the +bear spear would have been a burden now. His heart was beating +like a hammer, but such a dulness oppressed his brain, that it was +only by degrees he could realise his helpless state; wounded and +weaponless, chasing that terrible Thing, that was a fierce, +desperate, axe-armed woman, except she should assume the beast +with fangs yet more formidable. +</p> +<p>And still the far slow stars went lingering nearly an hour from +midnight. +</p> +<p>So far was his brain astray that an impression took him that she +was fleeing from the midnight stars, whose gain was by such slow +degrees that a time equalling days and days had gone in the race +round the northern circle of the world, and days and days as long +might last before the end—except she slackened, or except he +failed. +</p> +<p>But he would not fail yet. +</p> +<p>How long had he been praying so? He had started with a +self-confidence and reliance that had felt no need for that aid; +and now it seemed the only means by which to restrain his heart +from swelling beyond the compass of his body, by which to cherish +his brain from dwindling and shrivelling quite away. Some +sharp-toothed creature kept tearing and dragging on his maimed +left hand; he never could see it, he could not shake it off; but +he prayed it off at times. +</p> +<p>The clear stars before him took to shuddering, and he knew why: +they shuddered at sight of what was behind him. He had never +divined before that strange things hid themselves from men under +pretence of being snow-clad mounds or swaying trees; but now they +came slipping out from their harmless covers to follow him, and +mock at his impotence to make a kindred Thing resolve to truer +form. He knew the air behind him was thronged; he heard the hum of +innumerable murmurings together; but his eyes could never catch +them, they were too swift and nimble. Yet he knew they were there, +because, on a backward glance, he saw the snow mounds surge as +they grovelled flatlings out of sight; he saw the trees reel as +they screwed themselves rigid past recognition among the boughs. +</p> +<p>And after such glance the stars for awhile returned to +steadfastness, and an infinite stretch of silence froze upon the +chill grey world, only deranged by the swift even beat of the +flying feet, and his own—slower from the longer stride, and the +sound of his breath. And for some clear moments he knew that his +only concern was, to sustain his speed regardless of pain and +distress, to deny with every nerve he had her power to outstrip +him or to widen the space between them, till the stars crept up to +midnight. Then out again would come that crowd invisible, humming +and hustling behind, dense and dark enough, he knew, to blot out +the stars at his back, yet ever skipping and jerking from his +sight. +</p> +<p>A hideous check came to the race. White Fell swirled about and +leapt to the right, and Christian, unprepared for so prompt a +lurch, found close at his feet a deep pit yawning, and his own +impetus past control. But he snatched at her as he bore past, +clasping her right arm with his one whole hand, and the two swung +together upon the brink. +</p> +<p>And her straining away in self preservation was vigorous enough to +counter-balance his headlong impulse, and brought them reeling +together to safety. +</p> +<p>Then, before he was verily sure that they were not to perish so, +crashing down, he saw her gnashing in wild pale fury as she +wrenched to be free; and since her right hand was in his grasp, +used her axe left-handed, striking back at him. +</p> +<p>The blow was effectual enough even so; his right arm dropped +powerless, gashed, and with the lesser bone broken, that jarred +with horrid pain when he let it swing as he leaped out again, and +ran to recover the few feet she had gained from his pause at the +shock. +</p> +<p>The near escape and this new quick pain made again every faculty +alive and intense. He knew that what he followed was most surely +Death animate: wounded and helpless, he was utterly at her mercy +if so she should realise and take action. Hopeless to avenge, +hopeless to save, his very despair for Sweyn swept him on to +follow, and follow, and precede the kiss-doomed to death. Could he +yet fail to hunt that Thing past midnight, out of the womanly form +alluring and treacherous, into lasting restraint of the bestial, +which was the last shred of hope left from the confident purpose +of the outset? +</p> +<p>"Sweyn, Sweyn, O Sweyn!" He thought he was praying, though his +heart wrung out nothing but this: "Sweyn, Sweyn, O Sweyn!" +</p> +<p>The last hour from midnight had lost half its quarters, and the +stars went lifting up the great minutes; and again his greatening +heart, and his shrinking brain, and the sickening agony that swung +at either side, conspired to appal the will that had only seeming +empire over his feet. +</p> +<p>Now White Fell's body was so closely enveloped that not a lap nor +an edge flew free. She stretched forward strangely aslant, leaning +from the upright poise of a runner. She cleared the ground at +times by long bounds, gaining an increase of speed that Christian +agonised to equal. +</p> +<p>Because the stars pointed that the end was nearing, the black +brood came behind again, and followed, noising. Ah! if they could +but be kept quiet and still, nor slip their usual harmless masks +to encourage with their interest the last speed of their most +deadly congener. What shape had they? Should he ever know? If it +were not that he was bound to compel the fell Thing that ran +before him into her truer form, he might face about and follow +them. No—no—not so; if he might do anything but what he +did—race, race, and racing bear this agony, he would just stand +still and die, to be quit of the pain of breathing. +</p> +<p>He grew bewildered, uncertain of his own identity, doubting of his +own true form. He could not be really a man, no more than that +running Thing was really a woman; his real form was only hidden +under embodiment of a man, but what it was he did not know. And +Sweyn's real form he did not know. Sweyn lay fallen at his feet, +where he had struck him down—his own brother—he: he stumbled +over him, and had to overleap him and race harder because she who +had kissed Sweyn leapt so fast. "Sweyn, Sweyn, O Sweyn!" +</p> +<p>Why did the stars stop to shudder? Midnight else had surely come! +</p> +<p>The leaning, leaping Thing looked back at him with a wild, fierce +look, and laughed in savage scorn and triumph. He saw in a flash +why, for within a time measurable by seconds she would have +escaped him utterly. As the land lay, a slope of ice sunk on the +one hand; on the other hand a steep rose, shouldering forwards; +between the two was space for a foot to be planted, but none for a +body to stand; yet a juniper bough, thrusting out, gave a handhold +secure enough for one with a resolute grasp to swing past the +perilous place, and pass on safe. +</p> +<p>Though the first seconds of the last moment were going, she dared +to flash back a wicked look, and laugh at the pursuer who was +impotent to grasp. +</p> +<div class="figure"> +<a name="finish.png" href="images/finish.png"><img + src="images/finish-tn.png" alt="Illustration: The Finish"/></a></div> +<p> +The crisis struck convulsive life into his last supreme effort; +his will surged up indomitable, his speed proved matchless yet. He +leapt with a rush, passed her before her laugh had time to go out, +and turned short, barring the way, and braced to withstand her. +</p> +<p>She came hurling desperate, with a feint to the right hand, and +then launched herself upon him with a spring like a wild beast +when it leaps to kill. And he, with one strong arm and a hand that +could not hold, with one strong hand and an arm that could not +guide and sustain, he caught and held her even so. And they fell +together. And because he felt his whole arm slipping, and his +whole hand loosing, to slack the dreadful agony of the wrenched +bone above, he caught and held with his teeth the tunic at her +knee, as she struggled up and wrung off his hands to overleap him +victorious. +</p> +<p>Like lightning she snatched her axe, and struck him on the neck, +deep—once, twice—his life-blood gushed out, staining her feet. +</p> +<p>The stars touched midnight. +</p> +<p>The death scream he heard was not his, for his set teeth had +hardly yet relaxed when it rang out; and the dreadful cry began +with a woman's shriek, and changed and ended as the yell of a +beast. And before the final blank overtook his dying eyes, he saw +that She gave place to It; he saw more, that Life gave place to +Death—causelessly, incomprehensibly. +</p> +<p>For he did not presume that no holy water could be more holy, more +potent to destroy an evil thing than the life-blood of a pure +heart poured out for another in free willing devotion. +</p> +<p>His own true hidden reality that he had desired to know grew +palpable, recognisable. It seemed to him just this: a great glad +abounding hope that he had saved his brother; too expansive to be +contained by the limited form of a sole man, it yearned for a new +embodiment infinite as the stars. +</p> +<p>What did it matter to that true reality that the man's brain +shrank, shrank, till it was nothing; that the man's body could not +retain the huge pain of his heart, and heaved it out through the +red exit riven at the neck; that the black noise came again +hurtling from behind, reinforced by that dissolved shape, and +blotted out for ever the man's sight, hearing, sense. +</p> +<hr width="63%"/> +<p>In the early grey of day Sweyn chanced upon the footprints of a +man—of a runner, as he saw by the shifted snow; and the direction +they had taken aroused curiosity, since a little farther their +line must be crossed by the edge of a sheer height. He turned to +trace them. And so doing, the length of the stride struck his +attention—a stride long as his own if he ran. He knew he was +following Christian. +</p> +<p>In his anger he had hardened himself to be indifferent to the +night-long absence of his brother; but now, seeing where the +footsteps went, he was seized with compunction and dread. He had +failed to give thought and care to his poor frantic twin, who +might—was it possible?—have rushed to a frantic death. +</p> +<p>His heart stood still when he came to the place where the leap had +been taken. A piled edge of snow had fallen too, and nothing but +snow lay below when he peered. Along the upper edge he ran for a +furlong, till he came to a dip where he could slip and climb down, +and then back again on the lower level to the pile of fallen snow. +There he saw that the vigorous running had started afresh. +</p> +<p>He stood pondering; vexed that any man should have taken that leap +where he had not ventured to follow; vexed that he had been +beguiled to such painful emotions; guessing vainly at Christian's +object in this mad freak. He began sauntering along, half +unconsciously following his brother's track; and so in a while he +came to the place where the footprints were doubled. +</p> +<p>Small prints were these others, small as a woman's, though the +pace from one to another was longer than that which the skirts of +women allow. +</p> +<p>Did not White Fell tread so? +</p> +<p>A dreadful guess appalled him, so dreadful that he recoiled from +belief. Yet his face grew ashy white, and he gasped to fetch back +motion to his checked heart. Unbelievable? Closer attention showed +how the smaller footfall had altered for greater speed, striking +into the snow with a deeper onset and a lighter pressure on the +heels. Unbelievable? Could any woman but White Fell run so? Could +any man but Christian run so? The guess became a certainty. He was +following where alone in the dark night White Fell had fled from +Christian pursuing. +</p> +<p>Such villainy set heart and brain on fire with rage and +indignation: such villainy in his own brother, till lately +love-worthy, praiseworthy, though a fool for meekness. He would +kill Christian; had he lives many as the footprints he had trodden, +vengeance should demand them all. In a tempest of murderous hate +he followed on in haste, for the track was plain enough, starting +with such a burst of speed as could not be maintained, but brought +him back soon to a plod for the spent, sobbing breath to be +regulated. He cursed Christian aloud and called White Fell's name +on high in a frenzied expense of passion. His grief itself was a +rage, being such an intolerable anguish of pity and shame at the +thought of his love, White Fell, who had parted from his kiss free +and radiant, to be hounded straightway by his brother mad with +jealousy, fleeing for more than life while her lover was housed at +his ease. If he had but known, he raved, in impotent rebellion at +the cruelty of events, if he had but known that his strength and +love might have availed in her defence; now the only service to +her that he could render was to kill Christian. +</p> +<p>As a woman he knew she was matchless in speed, matchless in +strength; but Christian was matchless in speed among men, nor +easily to be matched in strength. Brave and swift and strong +though she were, what chance had she against a man of his strength +and inches, frantic, too, and intent on horrid revenge against his +brother, his successful rival? +</p> +<p>Mile after mile he followed with a bursting heart; more piteous, +more tragic, seemed the case at this evidence of White Fell's +splendid supremacy, holding her own so long against Christian's +famous speed. So long, so long that his love and admiration grew +more and more boundless, and his grief and indignation therewith +also. Whenever the track lay clear he ran, with such reckless +prodigality of strength, that it soon was spent, and he dragged on +heavily, till, sometimes on the ice of a mere, sometimes on a +wind-swept place, all signs were lost; but, so undeviating had +been their line that a course straight on, and then short questing +to either hand, recovered them again. +</p> +<p>Hour after hour had gone by through more than half that winter +day, before ever he came to the place where the trampled snow +showed that a scurry of feet had come—and gone! Wolves' feet—and +gone most amazingly! Only a little beyond he came to the lopped +point of Christian's bear-spear; farther on he would see where the +remnant of the useless shaft had been dropped. The snow here was +dashed with blood, and the footsteps of the two had fallen closer +together. Some hoarse sound of exultation came from him that might +have been a laugh had breath sufficed. "O White Fell, my poor, +brave love! Well struck!" he groaned, torn by his pity and great +admiration, as he guessed surely how she had turned and dealt a +blow. +</p> +<p>The sight of the blood inflamed him as it might a beast that +ravens. He grew mad with a desire to have Christian by the throat +once again, not to loose this time till he had crushed out his +life, or beat out his life, or stabbed out his life; or all these, +and torn him piecemeal likewise: and ah! then, not till then, +bleed his heart with weeping, like a child, like a girl, over the +piteous fate of his poor lost love. +</p> +<p>On—on—on—through the aching time, toiling and straining in the +track of those two superb runners, aware of the marvel of their +endurance, but unaware of the marvel of their speed, that, in the +three hours before midnight had overpassed all that vast distance +that he could only traverse from twilight to twilight. For clear +daylight was passing when he came to the edge of an old marl-pit, +and saw how the two who had gone before had stamped and trampled +together in desperate peril on the verge. And here fresh blood +stains spoke to him of a valiant defence against his infamous +brother; and he followed where the blood had dripped till the cold +had staunched its flow, taking a savage gratification from this +evidence that Christian had been gashed deeply, maddening afresh +with desire to do likewise more excellently, and so slake his +murderous hate. And he began to know that through all his despair +he had entertained a germ of hope, that grew apace, rained upon by +his brother's blood. +</p> +<p>He strove on as best he might, wrung now by an access of hope, now +of despair, in agony to reach the end, however terrible, sick with +the aching of the toiled miles that deferred it. +</p> +<p>And the light went lingering out of the sky, giving place to +uncertain stars. +</p> +<p>He came to the finish. +</p> +<p>Two bodies lay in a narrow place. Christian's was one, but the +other beyond not White Fell's. There where the footsteps ended lay +a great white wolf. +</p> +<p>At the sight Sweyn's strength was blasted; body and soul he was +struck down grovelling. +</p> +<p>The stars had grown sure and intense before he stirred from where +he had dropped prone. Very feebly he crawled to his dead brother, +and laid his hands upon him, and crouched so, afraid to look or +stir farther. +</p> +<p>Cold, stiff, hours dead. Yet the dead body was his only shelter +and stay in that most dreadful hour. His soul, stripped bare of +all sceptic comfort, cowered, shivering, naked, abject; and the +living clung to the dead out of piteous need for grace from the +soul that had passed away. +</p> +<p>He rose to his knees, lifting the body. Christian had fallen face +forward in the snow, with his arms flung up and wide, and so had +the frost made him rigid: strange, ghastly, unyielding to Sweyn's +lifting, so that he laid him down again and crouched above, with +his arms fast round him, and a low heart-wrung groan. +</p> +<div class="figure"> +<a name="finding.png" href="images/finding.png"><img + src="images/finding-tn.png" alt="Illustration: Sweyn's Finding"/></a></div> +<p> +When at last he found force to raise his brother's body and gather +it in his arms, tight clasped to his breast, he tried to face the +Thing that lay beyond. The sight set his limbs in a palsy with +horror and dread. His senses had failed and fainted in utter +cowardice, but for the strength that came from holding dead +Christian in his arms, enabling him to compel his eyes to endure +the sight, and take into the brain the complete aspect of the +Thing. No wound, only blood stains on the feet. The great grim +jaws had a savage grin, though dead-stiff. And his kiss: he could +bear it no longer, and turned away, nor ever looked again. +</p> +<p>And the dead man in his arms, knowing the full horror, had +followed and faced it for his sake; had suffered agony and death +for his sake; in the neck was the deep death gash, one arm and +both hands were dark with frozen blood, for his sake! Dead he knew +him, as in life he had not known him, to give the right meed of +love and worship. Because the outward man lacked perfection and +strength equal to his, he had taken the love and worship of that +great pure heart as his due; he, so unworthy in the inner reality, +so mean, so despicable, callous, and contemptuous towards the +brother who had laid down his life to save him. He longed for +utter annihilation, that so he might lose the agony of knowing +himself so unworthy such perfect love. The frozen calm of death on +the face appalled him. He dared not touch it with lips that had +cursed so lately, with lips fouled by kiss of the horror that had +been death. +</p> +<p>He struggled to his feet, still clasping Christian. The dead man +stood upright within his arm, frozen rigid. The eyes were not +quite closed; the head had stiffened, bowed slightly to one side; +the arms stayed straight and wide. It was the figure of one +crucified, the blood-stained hands also conforming. +</p> +<p>So living and dead went back along the track that one had passed +in the deepest passion of love, and one in the deepest passion of +hate. All that night Sweyn toiled through the snow, bearing the +weight of dead Christian, treading back along the steps he before +had trodden, when he was wronging with vilest thoughts, and +cursing with murderous hatred, the brother who all the while lay +dead for his sake. +</p> +<p>Cold, silence, darkness encompassed the strong man bowed with the +dolorous burden; and yet he knew surely that that night he entered +hell, and trod hell-fire along the homeward road, and endured +through it only because Christian was with him. And he knew surely +that to him Christian had been as Christ, and had suffered and +died to save him from his sins. +</p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WERE-WOLF***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 13131-h.txt or 13131-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/3/13131">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/3/13131</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution.</p> + + + +<pre> +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +<a href="https://gutenberg.org/license">https://gutenberg.org/license)</a>. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">https://www.gutenberg.org</a> + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + +<a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06">http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06</a> + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL">https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/002.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e39724e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/002.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/011.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/011.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..63174d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/011.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/078.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/078.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..08a000e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/078.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/078a.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/078a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f5ef4e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/078a.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/078b.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/078b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea8bf26 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/078b.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/078c.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/078c.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3da6a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/078c.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/129.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/129.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6693995 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/129.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/129a.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/129a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e509a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/129a.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/129b.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/129b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9b3cce --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/129b.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/129c.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/129c.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..30fb9a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/129c.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/195.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/195.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..208a6a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/195.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/195a.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/195a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..67c8f72 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/195a.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/195b.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/195b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d80dab --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/195b.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/295.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/295.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aaf7928 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/295.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/295a.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/295a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..230eecf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/295a.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/295b.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/295b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a18207b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/295b.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/295c.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/295c.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..982bb01 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/295c.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/359.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/359.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cccd723 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/359.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/359a.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/359a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5af442d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/359a.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/425.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/425.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9abd83c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/425.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/425a.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/425a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..366eee9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/425a.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/523.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/523.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2242c27 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/523.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/523a.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/523a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e37ca2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/523a.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/523b.jpg b/old/13131-h/images/523b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ec40b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/523b.jpg diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/finding-tn.png b/old/13131-h/images/finding-tn.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d804ab4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/finding-tn.png diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/finding.png b/old/13131-h/images/finding.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..08665fc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/finding.png diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/finish-tn.png b/old/13131-h/images/finish-tn.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e0b6ad --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/finish-tn.png diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/finish.png b/old/13131-h/images/finish.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c5a5cc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/finish.png diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/front-tn.png b/old/13131-h/images/front-tn.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a0a6b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/front-tn.png diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/front.png b/old/13131-h/images/front.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4760ea --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/front.png diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/initial.gif b/old/13131-h/images/initial.gif Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..13b3f53 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/initial.gif diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/race-tn.png b/old/13131-h/images/race-tn.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3ae61b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/race-tn.png diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/race.png b/old/13131-h/images/race.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9670180 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/race.png diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/rolwship-tn.png b/old/13131-h/images/rolwship-tn.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a6a1d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/rolwship-tn.png diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/rolwship.png b/old/13131-h/images/rolwship.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e5f967 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/rolwship.png diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/wfescape-tn.png b/old/13131-h/images/wfescape-tn.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa5b85d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/wfescape-tn.png diff --git a/old/13131-h/images/wfescape.png b/old/13131-h/images/wfescape.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..65cde3d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131-h/images/wfescape.png diff --git a/old/13131.txt b/old/13131.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f1afad --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2246 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Were-Wolf, by Clemence Housman, +Illustrated by Laurence Housman + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Were-Wolf + +Author: Clemence Housman + +Release Date: August 7, 2004 [eBook #13131] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WERE-WOLF*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Hagen von Eitzen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 13131-h.htm or 13131-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/3/13131/13131-h/13131-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/3/13131/13131-h.zip) + + + + + +THE WERE-WOLF + +by + +CLEMENCE HOUSMAN + +With Six Illustrations by Laurence Housman + +1896 + + + + + + +[Illustration: Holy Water] + + + +TO THE DEAR MEMORY OF +E.W.P. + +"YOU WILL THINK OF ME SOMETIMES, +MY DEAR?" + + + +LIST OF PLATES + +Holy Water +Rol's Worship +White Fell's Escape +The Race +The Finish +Sweyn's Finding + + + +THE WERE-WOLF + +The great farm hall was ablaze with the fire-light, and noisy with +laughter and talk and many-sounding work. None could be idle but +the very young and the very old: little Rol, who was hugging a +puppy, and old Trella, whose palsied hand fumbled over her +knitting. The early evening had closed in, and the farm-servants, +come from their outdoor work, had assembled in the ample hall, +which gave space for a score or more of workers. Several of the +men were engaged in carving, and to these were yielded the best +place and light; others made or repaired fishing-tackle and +harness, and a great seine net occupied three pairs of hands. Of +the women most were sorting and mixing eider feather and chopping +straw to add to it. Looms were there, though not in present use, +but three wheels whirred emulously, and the finest and swiftest +thread of the three ran between the fingers of the house-mistress. +Near her were some children, busy too, plaiting wicks for candles +and lamps. Each group of workers had a lamp in its centre, and +those farthest from the fire had live heat from two braziers +filled with glowing wood embers, replenished now and again from +the generous hearth. But the flicker of the great fire was +manifest to remotest corners, and prevailed beyond the limits of +the weaker lights. + +Little Rol grew tired of his puppy, dropped it incontinently, and +made an onslaught on Tyr, the old wolf-hound, who basked dozing, +whimpering and twitching in his hunting dreams. Prone went Rol +beside Tyr, his young arms round the shaggy neck, his curls +against the black jowl. Tyr gave a perfunctory lick, and stretched +with a sleepy sigh. Rol growled and rolled and shoved invitingly, +but could only gain from the old dog placid toleration and a +half-observant blink. "Take that then!" said Rol, indignant at this +ignoring of his advances, and sent the puppy sprawling against the +dignity that disdained him as playmate. The dog took no notice, +and the child wandered off to find amusement elsewhere. + +The baskets of white eider feathers caught his eye far off in a +distant corner. He slipped under the table, and crept along on +all-fours, the ordinary common-place custom of walking down a room +upright not being to his fancy. When close to the women he lay +still for a moment watching, with his elbows on the floor and his +chin in his palms. One of the women seeing him nodded and smiled, +and presently he crept out behind her skirts and passed, hardly +noticed, from one to another, till he found opportunity to possess +himself of a large handful of feathers. With these he traversed +the length of the room, under the table again, and emerged near +the spinners. At the feet of the youngest he curled himself round, +sheltered by her knees from the observation of the others, and +disarmed her of interference by secretly displaying his handful +with a confiding smile. A dubious nod satisfied him, and presently +he started on the play he had devised. He took a tuft of the white +down, and gently shook it free of his fingers close to the whirl +of the wheel. The wind of the swift motion took it, spun it round +and round in widening circles, till it floated above like a slow +white moth. Little Rol's eyes danced, and the row of his small +teeth shone in a silent laugh of delight. Another and another of +the white tufts was sent whirling round like a winged thing in a +spider's web, and floating clear at last. Presently the handful +failed. + +Rol sprawled forward to survey the room, and contemplate another +journey under the table. His shoulder, thrusting forward, checked +the wheel for an instant; he shifted hastily. The wheel flew on +with a jerk, and the thread snapped. "Naughty Rol!" said the girl. +The swiftest wheel stopped also, and the house-mistress, Rol's +aunt, leaned forward, and sighting the low curly head, gave a +warning against mischief, and sent him off to old Trella's corner. + +Rol obeyed, and after a discreet period of obedience, sidled out +again down the length of the room farthest from his aunt's eye. As +he slipped in among the men, they looked up to see that their +tools might be, as far as possible, out of reach of Rol's hands, +and close to their own. Nevertheless, before long he managed to +secure a fine chisel and take off its point on the leg of the +table. The carver's strong objections to this disconcerted Rol, +who for five minutes thereafter effaced himself under the table. + +During this seclusion he contemplated the many pairs of legs that +surrounded him, and almost shut out the light of the fire. How +very odd some of the legs were: some were curved where they should +be straight, some were straight where they should be curved, and, +as Rol said to himself, "they all seemed screwed on differently." +Some were tucked away modestly under the benches, others were +thrust far out under the table, encroaching on Rol's own +particular domain. He stretched out his own short legs and +regarded them critically, and, after comparison, favourably. Why +were not all legs made like his, or like _his_? + +These legs approved by Rol were a little apart from the rest. He +crawled opposite and again made comparison. His face grew quite +solemn as he thought of the innumerable days to come before his +legs could be as long and strong. He hoped they would be just like +those, his models, as straight as to bone, as curved as to muscle. + +A few moments later Sweyn of the long legs felt a small hand +caressing his foot, and looking down, met the upturned eyes of his +little cousin Rol. Lying on his back, still softly patting and +stroking the young man's foot, the child was quiet and happy for a +good while. He watched the movement of the strong deft hands, and +the shifting of the bright tools. Now and then, minute chips of +wood, puffed off by Sweyn, fell down upon his face. At last he +raised himself, very gently, lest a jog should wake impatience in +the carver, and crossing his own legs round Sweyn's ankle, +clasping with his arms too, laid his head against the knee. Such +act is evidence of a child's most wonderful hero-worship. Quite +content was Rol, and more than content when Sweyn paused a minute +to joke, and pat his head and pull his curls. Quiet he remained, +as long as quiescence is possible to limbs young as his. Sweyn +forgot he was near, hardly noticed when his leg was gently +released, and never saw the stealthy abstraction of one of his +tools. + +[Illustration: Rol's Worship] + +Ten minutes thereafter was a lamentable wail from low on the +floor, rising to the full pitch of Rol's healthy lungs; for his +hand was gashed across, and the copious bleeding terrified him. +Then was there soothing and comforting, washing and binding, and a +modicum of scolding, till the loud outcry sank into occasional +sobs, and the child, tear-stained and subdued, was returned to the +chimney-corner settle, where Trella nodded. + +In the reaction after pain and fright, Rol found that the quiet of +that fire-lit corner was to his mind. Tyr, too, disdained him no +longer, but, roused by his sobs, showed all the concern and +sympathy that a dog can by licking and wistful watching. A little +shame weighed also upon his spirits. He wished he had not cried +quite so much. He remembered how once Sweyn had come home with his +arm torn down from the shoulder, and a dead bear; and how he had +never winced nor said a word, though his lips turned white with +pain. Poor little Rol gave another sighing sob over his own +faint-hearted shortcomings. + +The light and motion of the great fire began to tell strange +stories to the child, and the wind in the chimney roared a +corroborative note now and then. The great black mouth of the +chimney, impending high over the hearth, received as into a +mysterious gulf murky coils of smoke and brightness of aspiring +sparks; and beyond, in the high darkness, were muttering and +wailing and strange doings, so that sometimes the smoke rushed +back in panic, and curled out and up to the roof, and condensed +itself to invisibility among the rafters. And then the wind would +rage after its lost prey, and rush round the house, rattling and +shrieking at window and door. + +In a lull, after one such loud gust, Rol lifted his head in +surprise and listened. A lull had also come on the babel of talk, +and thus could be heard with strange distinctness a sound outside +the door--the sound of a child's voice, a child's hands. "Open, +open; let me in!" piped the little voice from low down, lower than +the handle, and the latch rattled as though a tiptoe child reached +up to it, and soft small knocks were struck. One near the door +sprang up and opened it. "No one is here," he said. Tyr lifted his +head and gave utterance to a howl, loud, prolonged, most dismal. + +Sweyn, not able to believe that his ears had deceived him, got up +and went to the door. It was a dark night; the clouds were heavy +with snow, that had fallen fitfully when the wind lulled. +Untrodden snow lay up to the porch; there was no sight nor sound +of any human being. Sweyn strained his eyes far and near, only to +see dark sky, pure snow, and a line of black fir trees on a hill +brow, bowing down before the wind. "It must have been the wind," +he said, and closed the door. + +Many faces looked scared. The sound of a child's voice had been so +distinct--and the words "Open, open; let me in!" The wind might +creak the wood, or rattle the latch, but could not speak with a +child's voice, nor knock with the soft plain blows that a plump +fist gives. And the strange unusual howl of the wolf-hound was an +omen to be feared, be the rest what it might. Strange things were +said by one and another, till the rebuke of the house-mistress +quelled them into far-off whispers. For a time after there was +uneasiness, constraint, and silence; then the chill fear thawed by +degrees, and the babble of talk flowed on again. + +Yet half-an-hour later a very slight noise outside the door +sufficed to arrest every hand, every tongue. Every head was +raised, every eye fixed in one direction. "It is Christian; he is +late," said Sweyn. + +No, no; this is a feeble shuffle, not a young man's tread. With +the sound of uncertain feet came the hard tap-tap of a stick +against the door, and the high-pitched voice of eld, "Open, open; +let me in!" Again Tyr flung up his head in a long doleful howl. + +Before the echo of the tapping stick and the high voice had fairly +died away, Sweyn had sprung across to the door and flung it wide. +"No one again," he said in a steady voice, though his eyes looked +startled as he stared out. He saw the lonely expanse of snow, the +clouds swagging low, and between the two the line of dark +fir-trees bowing in the wind. He closed the door without a word of +comment, and re-crossed the room. + +A score of blanched faces were turned to him as though he must be +solver of the enigma. He could not be unconscious of this mute +eye-questioning, and it disturbed his resolute air of composure. +He hesitated, glanced towards his mother, the house-mistress, then +back at the frightened folk, and gravely, before them all, made +the sign of the cross. There was a flutter of hands as the sign +was repeated by all, and the dead silence was stirred as by a huge +sigh, for the held breath of many was freed as though the sign +gave magic relief. + +Even the house-mistress was perturbed. She left her wheel and +crossed the room to her son, and spoke with him for a moment in a +low tone that none could overhear. But a moment later her voice +was high-pitched and loud, so that all might benefit by her rebuke +of the "heathen chatter" of one of the girls. Perhaps she essayed +to silence thus her own misgivings and forebodings. + +No other voice dared speak now with its natural fulness. Low tones +made intermittent murmurs, and now and then silence drifted over +the whole room. The handling of tools was as noiseless as might +be, and suspended on the instant if the door rattled in a gust of +wind. After a time Sweyn left his work, joined the group nearest +the door, and loitered there on the pretence of giving advice and +help to the unskilful. + +A man's tread was heard outside in the porch. "Christian!" said +Sweyn and his mother simultaneously, he confidently, she +authoritatively, to set the checked wheels going again. But Tyr +flung up his head with an appalling howl. + +"Open, open; let me in!" + +It was a man's voice, and the door shook and rattled as a man's +strength beat against it. Sweyn could feel the planks quivering, +as on the instant his hand was upon the door, flinging it open, to +face the blank porch, and beyond only snow and sky, and firs +aslant in the wind. + +He stood for a long minute with the open door in his hand. The +bitter wind swept in with its icy chill, but a deadlier chill of +fear came swifter, and seemed to freeze the beating of hearts. +Sweyn stepped back to snatch up a great bearskin cloak. + +"Sweyn, where are you going?" + +"No farther than the porch, mother," and he stepped out and closed +the door. + +He wrapped himself in the heavy fur, and leaning against the most +sheltered wall of the porch, steeled his nerves to face the devil +and all his works. No sound of voices came from within; the most +distinct sound was the crackle and roar of the fire. + +It was bitterly cold. His feet grew numb, but he forbore stamping +them into warmth lest the sound should strike panic within; nor +would he leave the porch, nor print a foot-mark on the untrodden +white that declared so absolutely how no human voices and hands +could have approached the door since snow fell two hours or more +ago. "When the wind drops there will be more snow," thought Sweyn. + +For the best part of an hour he kept his watch, and saw no living +thing--heard no unwonted sound. "I will freeze here no longer," he +muttered, and re-entered. + +One woman gave a half-suppressed scream as his hand was laid on +the latch, and then a gasp of relief as he came in. No one +questioned him, only his mother said, in a tone of forced +unconcern, "Could you not see Christian coming?" as though she +were made anxious only by the absence of her younger son. Hardly +had Sweyn stamped near to the fire than clear knocking was heard +at the door. Tyr leapt from the hearth, his eyes red as the fire, +his fangs showing white in the black jowl, his neck ridged and +bristling; and overleaping Rol, ramped at the door, barking +furiously. + +Outside the door a clear mellow voice was calling. Tyr's bark made +the words undistinguishable. + +No one offered to stir towards the door before Sweyn. + +He stalked down the room resolutely, lifted the latch, and swung +back the door. + +A white-robed woman glided in. + +No wraith! Living--beautiful--young. + +Tyr leapt upon her. + +Lithely she baulked the sharp fangs with folds of her long fur +robe, and snatching from her girdle a small two-edged axe, whirled +it up for a blow of defence. + +Sweyn caught the dog by the collar, and dragged him off yelling +and struggling. + +The stranger stood in the doorway motionless, one foot set +forward, one arm flung up, till the house-mistress hurried down +the room; and Sweyn, relinquishing to others the furious Tyr, +turned again to close the door, and offer excuse for so fierce a +greeting. Then she lowered her arm, slung the axe in its place at +her waist, loosened the furs about her face, and shook over her +shoulders the long white robe--all as it were with the sway of one +movement. + +She was a maiden, tall and very fair. The fashion of her dress was +strange, half masculine, yet not unwomanly. A fine fur tunic, +reaching but little below the knee, was all the skirt she wore; +below were the cross-bound shoes and leggings that a hunter wears. +A white fur cap was set low upon the brows, and from its edge +strips of fur fell lappet-wise about her shoulders; two of these +at her entrance had been drawn forward and crossed about her +throat, but now, loosened and thrust back, left unhidden long +plaits of fair hair that lay forward on shoulder and breast, down +to the ivory-studded girdle where the axe gleamed. + +Sweyn and his mother led the stranger to the hearth without +question or sign of curiosity, till she voluntarily told her tale +of a long journey to distant kindred, a promised guide unmet, and +signals and landmarks mistaken. + +"Alone!" exclaimed Sweyn in astonishment. "Have you journeyed thus +far, a hundred leagues, alone?" + +She answered "Yes" with a little smile. + +"Over the hills and the wastes! Why, the folk there are savage and +wild as beasts." + +She dropped her hand upon her axe with a laugh of some scorn. + +"I fear neither man nor beast; some few fear me." And then she +told strange tales of fierce attack and defence, and of the bold +free huntress life she had led. + +Her words came a little slowly and deliberately, as though she +spoke in a scarce familiar tongue; now and then she hesitated, and +stopped in a phrase, as though for lack of some word. + +She became the centre of a group of listeners. The interest she +excited dissipated, in some degree, the dread inspired by the +mysterious voices. There was nothing ominous about this young, +bright, fair reality, though her aspect was strange. + +Little Rol crept near, staring at the stranger with all his might. +Unnoticed, he softly stroked and patted a corner of her soft white +robe that reached to the floor in ample folds. He laid his cheek +against it caressingly, and then edged up close to her knees. + +"What is your name?" he asked. + +The stranger's smile and ready answer, as she looked down, saved +Rol from the rebuke merited by his unmannerly question. + +"My real name," she said, "would be uncouth to your ears and +tongue. The folk of this country have given me another name, and +from this" (she laid her hand on the fur robe) "they call me +'White Fell.'" + +Little Rol repeated it to himself, stroking and patting as before. +"White Fell, White Fell." + +The fair face, and soft, beautiful dress pleased Rol. He knelt up, +with his eyes on her face and an air of uncertain determination, +like a robin's on a doorstep, and plumped his elbows into her lap +with a little gasp at his own audacity. + +"Rol!" exclaimed his aunt; but, "Oh, let him!" said White Fell, +smiling and stroking his head; and Rol stayed. + +He advanced farther, and panting at his own adventurousness in the +face of his aunt's authority, climbed up on to her knees. Her +welcoming arms hindered any protest. He nestled happily, fingering +the axe head, the ivory studs in her girdle, the ivory clasp at +her throat, the plaits of fair hair; rubbing his head against the +softness of her fur-clad shoulder, with a child's full confidence +in the kindness of beauty. + +White Fell had not uncovered her head, only knotted the pendant +fur loosely behind her neck. Rol reached up his hand towards it, +whispering her name to himself, "White Fell, White Fell," then +slid his arms round her neck, and kissed her--once--twice. She +laughed delightedly, and kissed him again. + +"The child plagues you?" said Sweyn. + +"No, indeed," she answered, with an earnestness so intense as to +seem disproportionate to the occasion. + +Rol settled himself again on her lap, and began to unwind the +bandage bound round his hand. He paused a little when he saw where +the blood had soaked through; then went on till his hand was bare +and the cut displayed, gaping and long, though only skin deep. He +held it up towards White Fell, desirous of her pity and sympathy. + +At sight of it, and the blood-stained linen, she drew in her +breath suddenly, clasped Rol to her--hard, hard--till he began to +struggle. Her face was hidden behind the boy, so that none could +see its expression. It had lighted up with a most awful glee. + +Afar, beyond the fir-grove, beyond the low hill behind, the absent +Christian was hastening his return. From daybreak he had been +afoot, carrying notice of a bear hunt to all the best hunters of +the farms and hamlets that lay within a radius of twelve miles. +Nevertheless, having been detained till a late hour, he now broke +into a run, going with a long smooth stride of apparent ease that +fast made the miles diminish. + +He entered the midnight blackness of the fir-grove with scarcely +slackened pace, though the path was invisible; and passing through +into the open again, sighted the farm lying a furlong off down the +slope. Then he sprang out freely, and almost on the instant gave +one great sideways leap, and stood still. There in the snow was +the track of a great wolf. + +His hand went to his knife, his only weapon. He stooped, knelt +down, to bring his eyes to the level of a beast, and peered about; +his teeth set, his heart beat a little harder than the pace of his +running insisted on. A solitary wolf, nearly always savage and of +large size, is a formidable beast that will not hesitate to attack +a single man. This wolf-track was the largest Christian had ever +seen, and, so far as he could judge, recently made. It led from +under the fir-trees down the slope. Well for him, he thought, was +the delay that had so vexed him before: well for him that he had +not passed through the dark fir-grove when that danger of jaws +lurked there. Going warily, he followed the track. + +It led down the slope, across a broad ice-bound stream, along the +level beyond, making towards the farm. A less precise knowledge +had doubted, and guessed that here might have come straying big +Tyr or his like; but Christian was sure, knowing better than to +mistake between footmark of dog and wolf. + +Straight on--straight on towards the farm. + +Surprised and anxious grew Christian, that a prowling wolf should +dare so near. He drew his knife and pressed on, more hastily, more +keen-eyed. Oh that Tyr were with him! + +Straight on, straight on, even to the very door, where the snow +failed. His heart seemed to give a great leap and then stop. There +the track _ended_. + +Nothing lurked in the porch, and there was no sign of return. The +firs stood straight against the sky, the clouds lay low; for the +wind had fallen and a few snowflakes came drifting down. In a +horror of surprise, Christian stood dazed a moment: then he lifted +the latch and went in. His glance took in all the old familiar +forms and faces, and with them that of the stranger, fur-clad and +beautiful. The awful truth flashed upon him: he knew what she was. + +Only a few were startled by the rattle of the latch as he entered. +The room was filled with bustle and movement, for it was the +supper hour, when all tools were laid aside, and trestles and +tables shifted. Christian had no knowledge of what he said and +did; he moved and spoke mechanically, half thinking that soon he +must wake from this horrible dream. Sweyn and his mother supposed +him to be cold and dead-tired, and spared all unnecessary +questions. And he found himself seated beside the hearth, opposite +that dreadful Thing that looked like a beautiful girl; watching +her every movement, curdling with horror to see her fondle the +child Rol. + +Sweyn stood near them both, intent upon White Fell also; but how +differently! She seemed unconscious of the gaze of both--neither +aware of the chill dread in the eyes of Christian, nor of Sweyn's +warm admiration. + +These two brothers, who were twins, contrasted greatly, despite +their striking likeness. They were alike in regular profile, fair +brown hair, and deep blue eyes; but Sweyn's features were perfect +as a young god's, while Christian's showed faulty details. Thus, +the line of his mouth was set too straight, the eyes shelved too +deeply back, and the contour of the face flowed in less generous +curves than Sweyn's. Their height was the same, but Christian was +too slender for perfect proportion, while Sweyn's well-knit frame, +broad shoulders, and muscular arms, made him pre-eminent for manly +beauty as well as for strength. As a hunter Sweyn was without +rival; as a fisher without rival. All the countryside acknowledged +him to be the best wrestler, rider, dancer, singer. Only in speed +could he be surpassed, and in that only by his younger brother. +All others Sweyn could distance fairly; but Christian could outrun +him easily. Ay, he could keep pace with Sweyn's most breathless +burst, and laugh and talk the while. Christian took little pride +in his fleetness of foot, counting a man's legs to be the least +worthy of his members. He had no envy of his brother's athletic +superiority, though to several feats he had made a moderate +second. He loved as only a twin can love--proud of all that Sweyn +did, content with all that Sweyn was; humbly content also that his +own great love should not be so exceedingly returned, since he +knew himself to be so far less love-worthy. + +Christian dared not, in the midst of women and children, launch +the horror that he knew into words. He waited to consult his +brother; but Sweyn did not, or would not, notice the signal he +made, and kept his face always turned towards White Fell. +Christian drew away from the hearth, unable to remain passive with +that dread upon him. + +"Where is Tyr?" he said suddenly. Then, catching sight of the dog +in a distant corner, "Why is he chained there?" + +"He flew at the stranger," one answered. + +Christian's eyes glowed. "Yes?" he said, interrogatively. + +"He was within an ace of having his brain knocked out." + +"Tyr?" + +"Yes; she was nimbly up with that little axe she has at her waist. +It was well for old Tyr that his master throttled him off." + +Christian went without a word to the corner where Tyr was chained. +The dog rose up to meet him, as piteous and indignant as a dumb +beast can be. He stroked the black head. "Good Tyr! brave dog!" + +They knew, they only; and the man and the dumb dog had comfort of +each other. + +Christian's eyes turned again towards White Fell: Tyr's also, and +he strained against the length of the chain. Christian's hand lay +on the dog's neck, and he felt it ridge and bristle with the +quivering of impotent fury. Then he began to quiver in like +manner, with a fury born of reason, not instinct; as impotent +morally as was Tyr physically. Oh! the woman's form that he dare +not touch! Anything but that, and he with Tyr would be free to +kill or be killed. + +Then he returned to ask fresh questions. + +"How long has the stranger been here?" + +"She came about half-an-hour before you." + +"Who opened the door to her?" + +"Sweyn: no one else dared." + +The tone of the answer was mysterious. + +"Why?" queried Christian. "Has anything strange happened? Tell +me." + +For answer he was told in a low undertone of the summons at the +door thrice repeated without human agency; and of Tyr's ominous +howls; and of Sweyn's fruitless watch outside. + +Christian turned towards his brother in a torment of impatience +for a word apart. The board was spread, and Sweyn was leading +White Fell to the guest's place. This was more awful: she would +break bread with them under the roof-tree! + +He started forward, and touching Sweyn's arm, whispered an urgent +entreaty. Sweyn stared, and shook his head in angry impatience. + +Thereupon Christian would take no morsel of food. + +His opportunity came at last. White Fell questioned of the +landmarks of the country, and of one Cairn Hill, which was an +appointed meeting-place at which she was due that night. The +house-mistress and Sweyn both exclaimed. + +"It is three long miles away," said Sweyn; "with no place for +shelter but a wretched hut. Stay with us this night, and I will +show you the way to-morrow." + +White Fell seemed to hesitate. "Three miles," she said; "then I +should be able to see or hear a signal." + +"I will look out," said Sweyn; "then, if there be no signal, you +must not leave us." + +He went to the door. Christian rose silently, and followed him +out. + +"Sweyn, do you know what she is?" + +Sweyn, surprised at the vehement grasp, and low hoarse voice, made +answer: + +"She? Who? White Fell?" + +"Yes." + +"She is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen." + +"She is a Were-Wolf." + +Sweyn burst out laughing. "Are you mad?" he asked. + +"No; here, see for yourself." + +Christian drew him out of the porch, pointing to the snow where +the footmarks had been. Had been, for now they were not. Snow was +falling fast, and every dint was blotted out. + +"Well?" asked Sweyn. + +"Had you come when I signed to you, you would have seen for +yourself." + +"Seen what?" + +"The footprints of a wolf leading up to the door; none leading +away." + +It was impossible not to be startled by the tone alone, though it +was hardly above a whisper. Sweyn eyed his brother anxiously, but +in the darkness could make nothing of his face. Then he laid his +hands kindly and re-assuringly on Christian's shoulders and felt +how he was quivering with excitement and horror. + +"One sees strange things," he said, "when the cold has got into +the brain behind the eyes; you came in cold and worn out." + +"No," interrupted Christian. "I saw the track first on the brow of +the slope, and followed it down right here to the door. This is no +delusion." + +Sweyn in his heart felt positive that it was. Christian was given +to day-dreams and strange fancies, though never had he been +possessed with so mad a notion before. + +"Don't you believe me?" said Christian desperately. "You must. I +swear it is sane truth. Are you blind? Why, even Tyr knows." + +"You will be clearer headed to-morrow after a night's rest. Then +come too, if you will, with White Fell, to the Hill Cairn; and if +you have doubts still, watch and follow, and see what footprints +she leaves." + +Galled by Sweyn's evident contempt Christian turned abruptly to +the door. Sweyn caught him back. + +"What now, Christian? What are you going to do?" + +"You do not believe me; my mother shall." + +Sweyn's grasp tightened. "You shall not tell her," he said +authoritatively. + +Customarily Christian was so docile to his brother's mastery that +it was now a surprising thing when he wrenched himself free +vigorously, and said as determinedly as Sweyn, "She shall know!" +but Sweyn was nearer the door and would not let him pass. + +"There has been scare enough for one night already. If this notion +of yours will keep, broach it to-morrow." Christian would not +yield. + +"Women are so easily scared," pursued Sweyn, "and are ready to +believe any folly without shadow of proof. Be a man, Christian, +and fight this notion of a Were-Wolf by yourself." + +"If you would believe me," began Christian. + +"I believe you to be a fool," said Sweyn, losing patience. +"Another, who was not your brother, might believe you to be a +knave, and guess that you had transformed White Fell into a +Were-Wolf because she smiled more readily on me than on you." + +The jest was not without foundation, for the grace of White Fell's +bright looks had been bestowed on him, on Christian never a whit. +Sweyn's coxcombery was always frank, and most forgiveable, and not +without fair colour. + +"If you want an ally," continued Sweyn, "confide in old Trella. +Out of her stores of wisdom, if her memory holds good, she can +instruct you in the orthodox manner of tackling a Were-Wolf. If I +remember aright, you should watch the suspected person till +midnight, when the beast's form must be resumed, and retained ever +after if a human eye sees the change; or, better still, sprinkle +hands and feet with holy water, which is certain death. Oh! never +fear, but old Trella will be equal to the occasion." + +Sweyn's contempt was no longer good-humoured; some touch of +irritation or resentment rose at this monstrous doubt of White +Fell. But Christian was too deeply distressed to take offence. + +"You speak of them as old wives' tales; but if you had seen the +proof I have seen, you would be ready at least to wish them true, +if not also to put them to the test." + +"Well," said Sweyn, with a laugh that had a little sneer in it, +"put them to the test! I will not object to that, if you will only +keep your notions to yourself. Now, Christian, give me your word +for silence, and we will freeze here no longer." + +Christian remained silent. + +Sweyn put his hands on his shoulders again and vainly tried to see +his face in the darkness. + +"We have never quarrelled yet, Christian?" + +"I have never quarrelled," returned the other, aware for the first +time that his dictatorial brother had sometimes offered occasion +for quarrel, had he been ready to take it. + +"Well," said Sweyn emphatically, "if you speak against White Fell +to any other, as to-night you have spoken to me--we shall." + +He delivered the words like an ultimatum, turned sharp round, and +re-entered the house. Christian, more fearful and wretched than +before, followed. + +"Snow is falling fast: not a single light is to be seen." + +White Fell's eyes passed over Christian without apparent notice, +and turned bright and shining upon Sweyn. + +"Nor any signal to be heard?" she queried. "Did you not hear the +sound of a sea-horn?" + +"I saw nothing, and heard nothing; and signal or no signal, the +heavy snow would keep you here perforce." + +She smiled her thanks beautifully. And Christian's heart sank like +lead with a deadly foreboding, as he noted what a light was +kindled in Sweyn's eyes by her smile. + +That night, when all others slept, Christian, the weariest of all, +watched outside the guest-chamber till midnight was past. No +sound, not the faintest, could be heard. Could the old tale be +true of the midnight change? What was on the other side of the +door, a woman or a beast? he would have given his right hand to +know. Instinctively he laid his hand on the latch, and drew it +softly, though believing that bolts fastened the inner side. The +door yielded to his hand; he stood on the threshold; a keen gust +of air cut at him; the window stood open; the room was empty. + +So Christian could sleep with a somewhat lightened heart. + +In the morning there was surprise and conjecture when White Fell's +absence was discovered. Christian held his peace. Not even to his +brother did he say how he knew that she had fled before midnight; +and Sweyn, though evidently greatly chagrined, seemed to disdain +reference to the subject of Christian's fears. + +The elder brother alone joined the bear hunt; Christian found +pretext to stay behind. Sweyn, being out of humour, manifested his +contempt by uttering not a single expostulation. + +All that day, and for many a day after, Christian would never go +out of sight of his home. Sweyn alone noticed how he manoeuvred for +this, and was clearly annoyed by it. White Fell's name was never +mentioned between them, though not seldom was it heard in general +talk. Hardly a day passed but little Rol asked when White Fell +would come again: pretty White Fell, who kissed like a snowflake. +And if Sweyn answered, Christian would be quite sure that the +light in his eyes, kindled by White Fell's smile, had not yet died +out. + +Little Rol! Naughty, merry, fairhaired little Rol. A day came when +his feet raced over the threshold never to return; when his +chatter and laugh were heard no more; when tears of anguish were +wept by eyes that never would see his bright head again: never +again, living or dead. + +He was seen at dusk for the last time, escaping from the house +with his puppy, in freakish rebellion against old Trella. Later, +when his absence had begun to cause anxiety, his puppy crept back +to the farm, cowed, whimpering and yelping, a pitiful, dumb lump +of terror, without intelligence or courage to guide the frightened +search. + +Rol was never found, nor any trace of him. Where he had perished +was never known; how he had perished was known only by an awful +guess--a wild beast had devoured him. + +Christian heard the conjecture "a wolf"; and a horrible certainty +flashed upon him that he knew what wolf it was. He tried to +declare what he knew, but Sweyn saw him start at the words with +white face and struggling lips; and, guessing his purpose, pulled +him back, and kept him silent, hardly, by his imperious grip and +wrathful eyes, and one low whisper. + +That Christian should retain his most irrational suspicion against +beautiful White Fell was, to Sweyn, evidence of a weak obstinacy +of mind that would but thrive upon expostulation and argument. But +this evident intention to direct the passions of grief and anguish +to a hatred and fear of the fair stranger, such as his own, was +intolerable, and Sweyn set his will against it. Again Christian +yielded to his brother's stronger words and will, and against his +own judgment consented to silence. + +Repentance came before the new moon, the first of the year, was +old. White Fell came again, smiling as she entered, as though +assured of a glad and kindly welcome; and, in truth, there was +only one who saw again her fair face and strange white garb +without pleasure. Sweyn's face glowed with delight, while +Christian's grew pale and rigid as death. He had given his word to +keep silence; but he had not thought that she would dare to come +again. Silence was impossible, face to face with that Thing, +impossible. Irrepressibly he cried out: + +"Where is Rol?" + +Not a quiver disturbed White Fell's face. She heard, yet remained +bright and tranquil. Sweyn's eyes flashed round at his brother +dangerously. Among the women some tears fell at the poor child's +name; but none caught alarm from its sudden utterance, for the +thought of Rol rose naturally. Where was little Rol, who had +nestled in the stranger's arms, kissing her; and watched for her +since; and prattled of her daily? + +Christian went out silently. One only thing there was that he +could do, and he must not delay. His horror overmastered any +curiosity to hear White Fell's smooth excuses and smiling +apologies for her strange and uncourteous departure; or her easy +tale of the circumstances of her return; or to watch her bearing +as she heard the sad tale of little Rol. + +The swiftest runner of the country-side had started on his hardest +race: little less than three leagues and back, which he reckoned +to accomplish in two hours, though the night was moonless and the +way rugged. He rushed against the still cold air till it felt like +a wind upon his face. The dim homestead sank below the ridges at +his back, and fresh ridges of snowlands rose out of the obscure +horizon-level to drive past him as the stirless air drove, and +sink away behind into obscure level again. He took no conscious +heed of landmarks, not even when all sign of a path was gone under +depths of snow. His will was set to reach his goal with unexampled +speed; and thither by instinct his physical forces bore him, +without one definite thought to guide. + +And the idle brain lay passive, inert, receiving into its vacancy +restless siftings of past sights and sounds: Rol, weeping, +laughing, playing, coiled in the arms of that dreadful Thing: +Tyr--O Tyr!--white fangs in the black jowl: the women who wept on +The foolish puppy, precious for the child's last touch: footprints +from pine wood to door: the smiling face among furs, of such +womanly beauty--smiling--smiling: and Sweyn's face. + +"Sweyn, Sweyn, O Sweyn, my brother!" + +Sweyn's angry laugh possessed his ear within the sound of the wind +of his speed; Sweyn's scorn assailed more quick and keen than the +biting cold at his throat. And yet he was unimpressed by any +thought of how Sweyn's anger and scorn would rise, if this errand +were known. + +Sweyn was a sceptic. His utter disbelief in Christian's testimony +regarding the footprints was based upon positive scepticism. His +reason refused to bend in accepting the possibility of the +supernatural materialised. That a living beast could ever be other +than palpably bestial--pawed, toothed, shagged, and eared as such, +was to him incredible; far more that a human presence could be +transformed from its god-like aspect, upright, free-handed, with +brows, and speech, and laughter. The wild and fearful legends that +he had known from childhood and then believed, he regarded now as +built upon facts distorted, overlaid by imagination, and quickened +by superstition. Even the strange summons at the threshold, that +he himself had vainly answered, was, after the first shock of +surprise, rationally explained by him as malicious foolery on the +part of some clever trickster, who withheld the key to the enigma. + +To the younger brother all life was a spiritual mystery, veiled +from his clear knowledge by the density of flesh. Since he knew +his own body to be linked to the complex and antagonistic forces +that constitute one soul, it seemed to him not impossibly strange +that one spiritual force should possess divers forms for widely +various manifestation. Nor, to him, was it great effort to believe +that as pure water washes away all natural foulness, so water, +holy by consecration, must needs cleanse God's world from that +supernatural evil Thing. Therefore, faster than ever man's foot +had covered those leagues, he sped under the dark, still night, +over the waste, trackless snow-ridges to the far-away church, +where salvation lay in the holy-water stoup at the door. His faith +was as firm as any that wrought miracles in days past, simple as a +child's wish, strong as a man's will. + +He was hardly missed during these hours, every second of which was +by him fulfilled to its utmost extent by extremest effort that +sinews and nerves could attain. Within the homestead the while, +the easy moments went bright with words and looks of unwonted +animation, for the kindly, hospitable instincts of the inmates +were roused into cordial expression of welcome and interest by the +grace and beauty of the returned stranger. + +But Sweyn was eager and earnest, with more than a host's courteous +warmth. The impression that at her first coming had charmed him, +that had lived since through memory, deepened now in her actual +presence. Sweyn, the matchless among men, acknowledged in this +fair White Fell a spirit high and bold as his own, and a frame so +firm and capable that only bulk was lacking for equal strength. +Yet the white skin was moulded most smoothly, without such +muscular swelling as made his might evident. Such love as his +frank self-love could concede was called forth by an ardent +admiration for this supreme stranger. More admiration than love +was in his passion, and therefore he was free from a lover's +hesitancy and delicate reserve and doubts. Frankly and boldly he +courted her favour by looks and tones, and an address that came of +natural ease, needless of skill by practice. + +Nor was she a woman to be wooed otherwise. Tender whispers and +sighs would never gain her ear; but her eyes would brighten and +shine if she heard of a brave feat, and her prompt hand in +sympathy fall swiftly on the axe-haft and clasp it hard. That +movement ever fired Sweyn's admiration anew; he watched for it, +strove to elicit it, and glowed when it came. Wonderful and +beautiful was that wrist, slender and steel-strong; also the +smooth shapely hand, that curved so fast and firm, ready to deal +instant death. + +Desiring to feel the pressure of these hands, this bold lover +schemed with palpable directness, proposing that she should hear +how their hunting songs were sung, with a chorus that signalled +hands to be clasped. So his splendid voice gave the verses, and, +as the chorus was taken up, he claimed her hands, and, even +through the easy grip, felt, as he desired, the strength that was +latent, and the vigour that quickened the very fingertips, as the +song fired her, and her voice was caught out of her by the +rhythmic swell, and rang clear on the top of the closing surge. + +Afterwards she sang alone. For contrast, or in the pride of +swaying moods by her voice, she chose a mournful song that drifted +along in a minor chant, sad as a wind that dirges: + + "Oh, let me go! + Around spin wreaths of snow; + The dark earth sleeps below. + + "Far up the plain + Moans on a voice of pain: + 'Where shall my babe be lain?' + + "In my white breast + Lay the sweet life to rest! + Lay, where it can lie best! + + "'Hush! hush its cries! + Dense night is on the skies: + Two stars are in thine eyes.' + + "Come, babe, away! + But lie thou till dawn be grey, + Who must be dead by day. + + "This cannot last; + But, ere the sickening blast, + All sorrow shall be past; + + "And kings shall be + Low bending at thy knee, + Worshipping life from thee. + + "For men long sore + To hope of what's before,-- + To leave the things of yore. + + "Mine, and not thine, + How deep their jewels shine! + Peace laps thy head, not mine." + + +Old Trella came tottering from her corner, shaken to additional +palsy by an aroused memory. She strained her dim eyes towards the +singer, and then bent her head, that the one ear yet sensible to +sound might avail of every note. At the close, groping forward, +she murmured with the high-pitched quaver of old age: + +"So she sang, my Thora; my last and brightest. What is she like, +she whose voice is like my dead Thora's? Are her eyes blue?" + +"Blue as the sky." + +"So were my Thora's! Is her hair fair, and in plaits to the +waist?" "Even so," answered White Fell herself, and met the +advancing hands with her own, and guided them to corroborate her +words by touch. + +"Like my dead Thora's," repeated the old woman; and then her +trembling hands rested on the fur-clad shoulders, and she bent +forward and kissed the smooth fair face that White Fell upturned, +nothing loth, to receive and return the caress. + +So Christian saw them as he entered. + +He stood a moment. After the starless darkness and the icy night +air, and the fierce silent two hours' race, his senses reeled on +sudden entrance into warmth, and light, and the cheery hum of +voices. A sudden unforeseen anguish assailed him, as now first he +entertained the possibility of being overmatched by her wiles and +her daring, if at the approach of pure death she should start up +at bay transformed to a terrible beast, and achieve a savage glut +at the last. He looked with horror and pity on the harmless, +helpless folk, so unwitting of outrage to their comfort and +security. The dreadful Thing in their midst, that was veiled from +their knowledge by womanly beauty, was a centre of pleasant +interest. There, before him, signally impressive, was poor old +Trella, weakest and feeblest of all, in fond nearness. And a +moment might bring about the revelation of a monstrous horror--a +ghastly, deadly danger, set loose and at bay, in a circle of girls +and women and careless defenceless men: so hideous and terrible a +thing as might crack the brain, or curdle the heart stone dead. + +And he alone of the throng prepared! + +[Illustration: White Fell's Escape] + +For one breathing space he faltered, no longer than that, while +over him swept the agony of compunction that yet could not make +him surrender his purpose. + +He alone? Nay, but Tyr also; and he crossed to the dumb sole +sharer of his knowledge. + +So timeless is thought that a few seconds only lay between his +lifting of the latch and his loosening of Tyr's collar; but in +those few seconds succeeding his first glance, as lightning-swift +had been the impulses of others, their motion as quick and sure. +Sweyn's vigilant eye had darted upon him, and instantly his every +fibre was alert with hostile instinct; and, half divining, half +incredulous, of Christian's object in stooping to Tyr, he came +hastily, wary, wrathful, resolute to oppose the malice of his +wild-eyed brother. + +But beyond Sweyn rose White Fell, blanching white as her furs, and +with eyes grown fierce and wild. She leapt down the room to the +door, whirling her long robe closely to her. "Hark!" she panted. +"The signal horn! Hark, I must go!" as she snatched at the latch +to be out and away. + +For one precious moment Christian had hesitated on the +half-loosened collar; for, except the womanly form were exchanged +for the bestial, Tyr's jaws would gnash to rags his honour of +manhood. Then he heard her voice, and turned--too late. + +As she tugged at the door, he sprang across grasping his flask, +but Sweyn dashed between, and caught him back irresistibly, so +that a most frantic effort only availed to wrench one arm free. +With that, on the impulse of sheer despair, he cast at her with +all his force. The door swung behind her, and the flask flew into +fragments against it. Then, as Sweyn's grasp slackened, and he met +the questioning astonishment of surrounding faces, with a hoarse +inarticulate cry: "God help us all!" he said. "She is a +Were-Wolf." + +Sweyn turned upon him, "Liar, coward!" and his hands gripped his +brother's throat with deadly force, as though the spoken word +could be killed so; and as Christian struggled, lifted him clear +off his feet and flung him crashing backward. So furious was he, +that, as his brother lay motionless, he stirred him roughly with +his foot, till their mother came between, crying shame; and yet +then he stood by, his teeth set, his brows knit, his hands +clenched, ready to enforce silence again violently, as Christian +rose staggering and bewildered. + +But utter silence and submission were more than he expected, and +turned his anger into contempt for one so easily cowed and held in +subjection by mere force. "He is mad!" he said, turning on his +heel as he spoke, so that he lost his mother's look of pained +reproach at this sudden free utterance of what was a lurking dread +within her. + +Christian was too spent for the effort of speech. His hard-drawn +breath laboured in great sobs; his limbs were powerless and +unstrung in utter relax after hard service. Failure in his +endeavour induced a stupor of misery and despair. In addition was +the wretched humiliation of open violence and strife with his +brother, and the distress of hearing misjudging contempt expressed +without reserve; for he was aware that Sweyn had turned to allay +the scared excitement half by imperious mastery, half by +explanation and argument, that showed painful disregard of +brotherly consideration. All this unkindness of his twin he +charged upon the fell Thing who had wrought this their first +dissension, and, ah! most terrible thought, interposed between +them so effectually, that Sweyn was wilfully blind and deaf on her +account, resentful of interference, arbitrary beyond reason. + +Dread and perplexity unfathomable darkened upon him; unshared, the +burden was overwhelming: a foreboding of unspeakable calamity, +based upon his ghastly discovery, bore down upon him, crushing out +hope of power to withstand impending fate. + +Sweyn the while was observant of his brother, despite the +continual check of finding, turn and glance when he would, +Christian's eyes always upon him, with a strange look of helpless +distress, discomposing enough to the angry aggressor. "Like a +beaten dog!" he said to himself, rallying contempt to withstand +compunction. Observation set him wondering on Christian's +exhausted condition. The heavy labouring breath and the slack +inert fall of the limbs told surely of unusual and prolonged +exertion. And then why had close upon two hours' absence been +followed by open hostility against White Fell? + +Suddenly, the fragments of the flask giving a clue, he guessed +all, and faced about to stare at his brother in amaze. He forgot +that the motive scheme was against White Fell, demanding derision +and resentment from him; that was swept out of remembrance by +astonishment and admiration for the feat of speed and endurance. +In eagerness to question he inclined to attempt a generous part +and frankly offer to heal the breach; but Christian's depression +and sad following gaze provoked him to self-justification by +recalling the offence of that outrageous utterance against White +Fell; and the impulse passed. Then other considerations counselled +silence; and afterwards a humour possessed him to wait and see how +Christian would find opportunity to proclaim his performance and +establish the fact, without exciting ridicule on account of the +absurdity of the errand. + +This expectation remained unfulfilled. Christian never attempted +the proud avowal that would have placed his feat on record to be +told to the next generation. + +That night Sweyn and his mother talked long and late together, +shaping into certainty the suspicion that Christian's mind had +lost its balance, and discussing the evident cause. For Sweyn, +declaring his own love for White Fell, suggested that his +unfortunate brother, with a like passion, they being twins in +loves as in birth, had through jealousy and despair turned from +love to hate, until reason failed at the strain, and a craze +developed, which the malice and treachery of madness made a +serious and dangerous force. + +So Sweyn theorised, convincing himself as he spoke; convincing +afterwards others who advanced doubts against White Fell; +fettering his judgment by his advocacy, and by his staunch defence +of her hurried flight silencing his own inner consciousness of the +unaccountability of her action. + +But a little time and Sweyn lost his vantage in the shock of a +fresh horror at the homestead. Trella was no more, and her end a +mystery. The poor old woman crawled out in a bright gleam to visit +a bed-ridden gossip living beyond the fir-grove. Under the trees +she was last seen, halting for her companion, sent back for a +forgotten present. Quick alarm sprang, calling every man to the +search. Her stick was found among the brushwood only a few paces +from the path, but no track or stain, for a gusty wind was sifting +the snow from the branches, and hid all sign of how she came by +her death. + +So panic-stricken were the farm folk that none dared go singly on +the search. Known danger could be braced, but not this stealthy +Death that walked by day invisible, that cut off alike the child +in his play and the aged woman so near to her quiet grave. + +"Rol she kissed; Trella she kissed!" So rang Christian's frantic +cry again and again, till Sweyn dragged him away and strove to +keep him apart, albeit in his agony of grief and remorse he +accused himself wildly as answerable for the tragedy, and gave +clear proof that the charge of madness was well founded, if +strange looks and desperate, incoherent words were evidence +enough. + +But thenceforward all Sweyn's reasoning and mastery could not +uphold White Fell above suspicion. He was not called upon to +defend her from accusation when Christian had been brought to +silence again; but he well knew the significance of this fact, +that her name, formerly uttered freely and often, he never heard +now: it was huddled away into whispers that he could not catch. + +The passing of time did not sweep away the superstitious fears +that Sweyn despised. He was angry and anxious; eager that White +Fell should return, and, merely by her bright gracious presence, +reinstate herself in favour; but doubtful if all his authority and +example could keep from her notice an altered aspect of welcome; +and he foresaw clearly that Christian would prove unmanageable, +and might be capable of some dangerous outbreak. + +For a time the twins' variance was marked, on Sweyn's part by an +air of rigid indifference, on Christian's by heavy downcast +silence, and a nervous apprehensive observation of his brother. +Superadded to his remorse and foreboding, Sweyn's displeasure +weighed upon him intolerably, and the remembrance of their violent +rupture was a ceaseless misery. The elder brother, self-sufficient +and insensitive, could little know how deeply his unkindness +stabbed. A depth and force of affection such as Christian's was +unknown to him. The loyal subservience that he could not +appreciate had encouraged him to domineer; this strenuous +opposition to his reason and will was accounted as furious malice, +if not sheer insanity. + +Christian's surveillance galled him incessantly, and embarrassment +and danger he foresaw as the outcome. Therefore, that suspicion +might be lulled, he judged it wise to make overtures for peace. +Most easily done. A little kindliness, a few evidences of +consideration, a slight return of the old brotherly imperiousness, +and Christian replied by a gratefulness and relief that might have +touched him had he understood all, but instead, increased his +secret contempt. + +So successful was this finesse, that when, late on a day, a +message summoning Christian to a distance was transmitted by +Sweyn, no doubt of its genuineness occurred. When, his errand +proved useless, he set out to return, mistake or misapprehension +was all that he surmised. Not till he sighted the homestead, lying +low between the night-grey snow ridges, did vivid recollection of +the time when he had tracked that horror to the door rouse an +intense dread, and with it a hardly-defined suspicion. + +His grasp tightened on the bear-spear that he carried as a staff; +every sense was alert, every muscle strung; excitement urged him +on, caution checked him, and the two governed his long stride, +swiftly, noiselessly, to the climax he felt was at hand. + +As he drew near to the outer gates, a light shadow stirred and +went, as though the grey of the snow had taken detached motion. A +darker shadow stayed and faced Christian, striking his life-blood +chill with utmost despair. + +Sweyn stood before him, and surely, the shadow that went was White +Fell. + +They had been together--close. Had she not been in his arms, near +enough for lips to meet? + +There was no moon, but the stars gave light enough to show that +Sweyn's face was flushed and elate. The flush remained, though the +expression changed quickly at sight of his brother. How, if +Christian had seen all, should one of his frenzied outbursts be +met and managed: by resolution? by indifference? He halted between +the two, and as a result, he swaggered. + +"White Fell?" questioned Christian, hoarse and breathless. + +"Yes?" + +Sweyn's answer was a query, with an intonation that implied he was +clearing the ground for action. + +From Christian came: "Have you kissed her?" like a bolt direct, +staggering Sweyn by its sheer prompt temerity. + +He flushed yet darker, and yet half-smiled over this earnest of +success he had won. Had there been really between himself and +Christian the rivalry that he imagined, his face had enough of the +insolence of triumph to exasperate jealous rage. + +"You dare ask this!" + +"Sweyn, O Sweyn, I must know! You have!" + +The ring of despair and anguish in his tone angered Sweyn, +misconstruing it. Jealousy urging to such presumption was +intolerable. + +"Mad fool!" he said, constraining himself no longer. "Win for +yourself a woman to kiss. Leave mine without question. Such an one +as I should desire to kiss is such an one as shall never allow a +kiss to you." + +Then Christian fully understood his supposition. + +"I--I!" he cried. "White Fell--that deadly Thing! Sweyn, are you +blind, mad? I would save you from her: a Were-Wolf!" + +Sweyn maddened again at the accusation--a dastardly way of +revenge, as he conceived; and instantly, for the second time, the +brothers were at strife violently. + +But Christian was now too desperate to be scrupulous; for a dim +glimpse had shot a possibility into his mind, and to be free to +follow it the striking of his brother was a necessity. Thank God! +he was armed, and so Sweyn's equal. + +[Illustration: The Race] + +Facing his assailant with the bear-spear, he struck up his arms, +and with the butt end hit hard so that he fell. The matchless +runner leapt away on the instant, to follow a forlorn hope. +Sweyn, on regaining his feet, was as amazed as angry at this +unaccountable flight. He knew in his heart that his brother was no +coward, and that it was unlike him to shrink from an encounter +because defeat was certain, and cruel humiliation from a +vindictive victor probable. Of the uselessness of pursuit he was +well aware: he must abide his chagrin, content to know that his +time for advantage would come. Since White Fell had parted to the +right, Christian to the left, the event of a sequent encounter did +not occur to him. And now Christian, acting on the dim glimpse he +had had, just as Sweyn turned upon him, of something that moved +against the sky along the ridge behind the homestead, was staking +his only hope on a chance, and his own superlative speed. If what +he saw was really White Fell, he guessed she was bending her steps +towards the open wastes; and there was just a possibility that, by +a straight dash, and a desperate perilous leap over a sheer bluff, +he might yet meet her or head her. And then: he had no further +thought. + +It was past, the quick, fierce race, and the chance of death at +the leap; and he halted in a hollow to fetch his breath and to +look: did she come? had she gone? + +She came. + +She came with a smooth, gliding, noiseless speed, that was neither +walking nor running; her arms were folded in her furs that were +drawn tight about her body; the white lappets from her head were +wrapped and knotted closely beneath her face; her eyes were set on +a far distance. So she went till the even sway of her going was +startled to a pause by Christian. + +"Fell!" + +She drew a quick, sharp breath at the sound of her name thus +mutilated, and faced Sweyn's brother. Her eyes glittered; her +upper lip was lifted, and shewed the teeth. The half of her name, +impressed with an ominous sense as uttered by him, warned her of +the aspect of a deadly foe. Yet she cast loose her robes till they +trailed ample, and spoke as a mild woman. + +"What would you?" + +Then Christian answered with his solemn dreadful accusation: + +"You kissed Rol--and Rol is dead! You kissed Trella: she is dead! +You have kissed Sweyn, my brother; but he shall not die!" + +He added: "You may live till midnight." + +The edge of the teeth and the glitter of the eyes stayed a moment, +and her right hand also slid down to the axe haft. Then, without a +word, she swerved from him, and sprang out and away swiftly over +the snow. + +And Christian sprang out and away, and followed her swiftly over +the snow, keeping behind, but half-a-stride's length from her +side. + +So they went running together, silent, towards the vast wastes of +snow, where no living thing but they two moved under the stars of +night. + +Never before had Christian so rejoiced in his powers. The gift of +speed, and the training of use and endurance were priceless to him +now. Though midnight was hours away, he was confident that, go +where that Fell Thing would, hasten as she would, she could not +outstrip him nor escape from him. Then, when came the time for +transformation, when the woman's form made no longer a shield +against a man's hand, he could slay or be slain to save Sweyn. He +had struck his dear brother in dire extremity, but he could not, +though reason urged, strike a woman. + +For one mile, for two miles they ran: White Fell ever foremost, +Christian ever at equal distance from her side, so near that, now +and again, her out-flying furs touched him. She spoke no word; nor +he. She never turned her head to look at him, nor swerved to evade +him; but, with set face looking forward, sped straight on, over +rough, over smooth, aware of his nearness by the regular beat of +his feet, and the sound of his breath behind. + +In a while she quickened her pace. From the first, Christian had +judged of her speed as admirable, yet with exulting security in +his own excelling and enduring whatever her efforts. But, when the +pace increased, he found himself put to the test as never had he +been before in any race. Her feet, indeed, flew faster than his; +it was only by his length of stride that he kept his place at her +side. But his heart was high and resolute, and he did not fear +failure yet. + +So the desperate race flew on. Their feet struck up the powdery +snow, their breath smoked into the sharp clear air, and they were +gone before the air was cleared of snow and vapour. Now and then +Christian glanced up to judge, by the rising of the stars, of the +coming of midnight. So long--so long! + +White Fell held on without slack. She, it was evident, with +confidence in her speed proving matchless, as resolute to outrun +her pursuer as he to endure till midnight and fulfil his purpose. +And Christian held on, still self-assured. He could not fail; he +would not fail. To avenge Rol and Trella was motive enough for him +to do what man could do; but for Sweyn more. She had kissed Sweyn, +but he should not die too: with Sweyn to save he could not fail. + +Never before was such a race as this; no, not when in old Greece +man and maid raced together with two fates at stake; for the hard +running was sustained unabated, while star after star rose and +went wheeling up towards midnight, for one hour, for two hours. + +Then Christian saw and heard what shot him through with fear. +Where a fringe of trees hung round a slope he saw something dark +moving, and heard a yelp, followed by a full horrid cry, and the +dark spread out upon the snow, a pack of wolves in pursuit. + +Of the beasts alone he had little cause for fear; at the pace he +held he could distance them, four-footed though they were. But of +White Fell's wiles he had infinite apprehension, for how might she +not avail herself of the savage jaws of these wolves, akin as they +were to half her nature. She vouchsafed to them nor look nor sign; +but Christian, on an impulse to assure himself that she should not +escape him, caught and held the back-flung edge of her furs, +running still. + +She turned like a flash with a beastly snarl, teeth and eyes +gleaming again. Her axe shone, on the upstroke, on the downstroke, +as she hacked at his hand. She had lopped it off at the wrist, but +that he parried with the bear-spear. Even then, she shore through +the shaft and shattered the bones of the hand at the same blow, so +that he loosed perforce. + +Then again they raced on as before, Christian not losing a pace, +though his left hand swung useless, bleeding and broken. + +The snarl, indubitable, though modified from a woman's organs, the +vicious fury revealed in teeth and eyes, the sharp arrogant pain +of her maiming blow, caught away Christian's heed of the beasts +behind, by striking into him close vivid realisation of the +infinitely greater danger that ran before him in that deadly +Thing. + +When he bethought him to look behind, lo! the pack had but reached +their tracks, and instantly slunk aside, cowed; the yell of +pursuit changing to yelps and whines. So abhorrent was that fell +creature to beast as to man. + +She had drawn her furs more closely to her, disposing them so +that, instead of flying loose to her heels, no drapery hung lower +than her knees, and this without a check to her wonderful speed, +nor embarrassment by the cumbering of the folds. She held her head +as before; her lips were firmly set, only the tense nostrils gave +her breath; not a sign of distress witnessed to the long +sustaining of that terrible speed. + +But on Christian by now the strain was telling palpably. His head +weighed heavy, and his breath came labouring in great sobs; the +bear spear would have been a burden now. His heart was beating +like a hammer, but such a dulness oppressed his brain, that it was +only by degrees he could realise his helpless state; wounded and +weaponless, chasing that terrible Thing, that was a fierce, +desperate, axe-armed woman, except she should assume the beast +with fangs yet more formidable. + +And still the far slow stars went lingering nearly an hour from +midnight. + +So far was his brain astray that an impression took him that she +was fleeing from the midnight stars, whose gain was by such slow +degrees that a time equalling days and days had gone in the race +round the northern circle of the world, and days and days as long +might last before the end--except she slackened, or except he +failed. + +But he would not fail yet. + +How long had he been praying so? He had started with a +self-confidence and reliance that had felt no need for that aid; +and now it seemed the only means by which to restrain his heart +from swelling beyond the compass of his body, by which to cherish +his brain from dwindling and shrivelling quite away. Some +sharp-toothed creature kept tearing and dragging on his maimed +left hand; he never could see it, he could not shake it off; but +he prayed it off at times. + +The clear stars before him took to shuddering, and he knew why: +they shuddered at sight of what was behind him. He had never +divined before that strange things hid themselves from men under +pretence of being snow-clad mounds or swaying trees; but now they +came slipping out from their harmless covers to follow him, and +mock at his impotence to make a kindred Thing resolve to truer +form. He knew the air behind him was thronged; he heard the hum of +innumerable murmurings together; but his eyes could never catch +them, they were too swift and nimble. Yet he knew they were there, +because, on a backward glance, he saw the snow mounds surge as +they grovelled flatlings out of sight; he saw the trees reel as +they screwed themselves rigid past recognition among the boughs. + +And after such glance the stars for awhile returned to +steadfastness, and an infinite stretch of silence froze upon the +chill grey world, only deranged by the swift even beat of the +flying feet, and his own--slower from the longer stride, and the +sound of his breath. And for some clear moments he knew that his +only concern was, to sustain his speed regardless of pain and +distress, to deny with every nerve he had her power to outstrip +him or to widen the space between them, till the stars crept up to +midnight. Then out again would come that crowd invisible, humming +and hustling behind, dense and dark enough, he knew, to blot out +the stars at his back, yet ever skipping and jerking from his +sight. + +A hideous check came to the race. White Fell swirled about and +leapt to the right, and Christian, unprepared for so prompt a +lurch, found close at his feet a deep pit yawning, and his own +impetus past control. But he snatched at her as he bore past, +clasping her right arm with his one whole hand, and the two swung +together upon the brink. + +And her straining away in self preservation was vigorous enough to +counter-balance his headlong impulse, and brought them reeling +together to safety. + +Then, before he was verily sure that they were not to perish so, +crashing down, he saw her gnashing in wild pale fury as she +wrenched to be free; and since her right hand was in his grasp, +used her axe left-handed, striking back at him. + +The blow was effectual enough even so; his right arm dropped +powerless, gashed, and with the lesser bone broken, that jarred +with horrid pain when he let it swing as he leaped out again, and +ran to recover the few feet she had gained from his pause at the +shock. + +The near escape and this new quick pain made again every faculty +alive and intense. He knew that what he followed was most surely +Death animate: wounded and helpless, he was utterly at her mercy +if so she should realise and take action. Hopeless to avenge, +hopeless to save, his very despair for Sweyn swept him on to +follow, and follow, and precede the kiss-doomed to death. Could he +yet fail to hunt that Thing past midnight, out of the womanly form +alluring and treacherous, into lasting restraint of the bestial, +which was the last shred of hope left from the confident purpose +of the outset? + +"Sweyn, Sweyn, O Sweyn!" He thought he was praying, though his +heart wrung out nothing but this: "Sweyn, Sweyn, O Sweyn!" + +The last hour from midnight had lost half its quarters, and the +stars went lifting up the great minutes; and again his greatening +heart, and his shrinking brain, and the sickening agony that swung +at either side, conspired to appal the will that had only seeming +empire over his feet. + +Now White Fell's body was so closely enveloped that not a lap nor +an edge flew free. She stretched forward strangely aslant, leaning +from the upright poise of a runner. She cleared the ground at +times by long bounds, gaining an increase of speed that Christian +agonised to equal. + +Because the stars pointed that the end was nearing, the black +brood came behind again, and followed, noising. Ah! if they could +but be kept quiet and still, nor slip their usual harmless masks +to encourage with their interest the last speed of their most +deadly congener. What shape had they? Should he ever know? If it +were not that he was bound to compel the fell Thing that ran +before him into her truer form, he might face about and follow +them. No--no--not so; if he might do anything but what he +did--race, race, and racing bear this agony, he would just stand +still and die, to be quit of the pain of breathing. + +He grew bewildered, uncertain of his own identity, doubting of his +own true form. He could not be really a man, no more than that +running Thing was really a woman; his real form was only hidden +under embodiment of a man, but what it was he did not know. And +Sweyn's real form he did not know. Sweyn lay fallen at his feet, +where he had struck him down--his own brother--he: he stumbled +over him, and had to overleap him and race harder because she who +had kissed Sweyn leapt so fast. "Sweyn, Sweyn, O Sweyn!" + +Why did the stars stop to shudder? Midnight else had surely come! + +The leaning, leaping Thing looked back at him with a wild, fierce +look, and laughed in savage scorn and triumph. He saw in a flash +why, for within a time measurable by seconds she would have +escaped him utterly. As the land lay, a slope of ice sunk on the +one hand; on the other hand a steep rose, shouldering forwards; +between the two was space for a foot to be planted, but none for a +body to stand; yet a juniper bough, thrusting out, gave a handhold +secure enough for one with a resolute grasp to swing past the +perilous place, and pass on safe. + +Though the first seconds of the last moment were going, she dared +to flash back a wicked look, and laugh at the pursuer who was +impotent to grasp. + +[Illustration: The Finish] + +The crisis struck convulsive life into his last supreme effort; +his will surged up indomitable, his speed proved matchless yet. He +leapt with a rush, passed her before her laugh had time to go out, +and turned short, barring the way, and braced to withstand her. + +She came hurling desperate, with a feint to the right hand, and +then launched herself upon him with a spring like a wild beast +when it leaps to kill. And he, with one strong arm and a hand that +could not hold, with one strong hand and an arm that could not +guide and sustain, he caught and held her even so. And they fell +together. And because he felt his whole arm slipping, and his +whole hand loosing, to slack the dreadful agony of the wrenched +bone above, he caught and held with his teeth the tunic at her +knee, as she struggled up and wrung off his hands to overleap him +victorious. + +Like lightning she snatched her axe, and struck him on the neck, +deep--once, twice--his life-blood gushed out, staining her feet. + +The stars touched midnight. + +The death scream he heard was not his, for his set teeth had +hardly yet relaxed when it rang out; and the dreadful cry began +with a woman's shriek, and changed and ended as the yell of a +beast. And before the final blank overtook his dying eyes, he saw +that She gave place to It; he saw more, that Life gave place to +Death--causelessly, incomprehensibly. + +For he did not presume that no holy water could be more holy, more +potent to destroy an evil thing than the life-blood of a pure +heart poured out for another in free willing devotion. + +His own true hidden reality that he had desired to know grew +palpable, recognisable. It seemed to him just this: a great glad +abounding hope that he had saved his brother; too expansive to be +contained by the limited form of a sole man, it yearned for a new +embodiment infinite as the stars. + +What did it matter to that true reality that the man's brain +shrank, shrank, till it was nothing; that the man's body could not +retain the huge pain of his heart, and heaved it out through the +red exit riven at the neck; that the black noise came again +hurtling from behind, reinforced by that dissolved shape, and +blotted out for ever the man's sight, hearing, sense. + + * * * * * + +In the early grey of day Sweyn chanced upon the footprints of a +man--of a runner, as he saw by the shifted snow; and the direction +they had taken aroused curiosity, since a little farther their +line must be crossed by the edge of a sheer height. He turned to +trace them. And so doing, the length of the stride struck his +attention--a stride long as his own if he ran. He knew he was +following Christian. + +In his anger he had hardened himself to be indifferent to the +night-long absence of his brother; but now, seeing where the +footsteps went, he was seized with compunction and dread. He had +failed to give thought and care to his poor frantic twin, who +might--was it possible?--have rushed to a frantic death. + +His heart stood still when he came to the place where the leap had +been taken. A piled edge of snow had fallen too, and nothing but +snow lay below when he peered. Along the upper edge he ran for a +furlong, till he came to a dip where he could slip and climb down, +and then back again on the lower level to the pile of fallen snow. +There he saw that the vigorous running had started afresh. + +He stood pondering; vexed that any man should have taken that leap +where he had not ventured to follow; vexed that he had been +beguiled to such painful emotions; guessing vainly at Christian's +object in this mad freak. He began sauntering along, half +unconsciously following his brother's track; and so in a while he +came to the place where the footprints were doubled. + +Small prints were these others, small as a woman's, though the +pace from one to another was longer than that which the skirts of +women allow. + +Did not White Fell tread so? + +A dreadful guess appalled him, so dreadful that he recoiled from +belief. Yet his face grew ashy white, and he gasped to fetch back +motion to his checked heart. Unbelievable? Closer attention showed +how the smaller footfall had altered for greater speed, striking +into the snow with a deeper onset and a lighter pressure on the +heels. Unbelievable? Could any woman but White Fell run so? Could +any man but Christian run so? The guess became a certainty. He was +following where alone in the dark night White Fell had fled from +Christian pursuing. + +Such villainy set heart and brain on fire with rage and +indignation: such villainy in his own brother, till lately +love-worthy, praiseworthy, though a fool for meekness. He would +kill Christian; had he lives many as the footprints he had trodden, +vengeance should demand them all. In a tempest of murderous hate +he followed on in haste, for the track was plain enough, starting +with such a burst of speed as could not be maintained, but brought +him back soon to a plod for the spent, sobbing breath to be +regulated. He cursed Christian aloud and called White Fell's name +on high in a frenzied expense of passion. His grief itself was a +rage, being such an intolerable anguish of pity and shame at the +thought of his love, White Fell, who had parted from his kiss free +and radiant, to be hounded straightway by his brother mad with +jealousy, fleeing for more than life while her lover was housed at +his ease. If he had but known, he raved, in impotent rebellion at +the cruelty of events, if he had but known that his strength and +love might have availed in her defence; now the only service to +her that he could render was to kill Christian. + +As a woman he knew she was matchless in speed, matchless in +strength; but Christian was matchless in speed among men, nor +easily to be matched in strength. Brave and swift and strong +though she were, what chance had she against a man of his strength +and inches, frantic, too, and intent on horrid revenge against his +brother, his successful rival? + +Mile after mile he followed with a bursting heart; more piteous, +more tragic, seemed the case at this evidence of White Fell's +splendid supremacy, holding her own so long against Christian's +famous speed. So long, so long that his love and admiration grew +more and more boundless, and his grief and indignation therewith +also. Whenever the track lay clear he ran, with such reckless +prodigality of strength, that it soon was spent, and he dragged on +heavily, till, sometimes on the ice of a mere, sometimes on a +wind-swept place, all signs were lost; but, so undeviating had +been their line that a course straight on, and then short questing +to either hand, recovered them again. + +Hour after hour had gone by through more than half that winter +day, before ever he came to the place where the trampled snow +showed that a scurry of feet had come--and gone! Wolves' feet--and +gone most amazingly! Only a little beyond he came to the lopped +point of Christian's bear-spear; farther on he would see where the +remnant of the useless shaft had been dropped. The snow here was +dashed with blood, and the footsteps of the two had fallen closer +together. Some hoarse sound of exultation came from him that might +have been a laugh had breath sufficed. "O White Fell, my poor, +brave love! Well struck!" he groaned, torn by his pity and great +admiration, as he guessed surely how she had turned and dealt a +blow. + +The sight of the blood inflamed him as it might a beast that +ravens. He grew mad with a desire to have Christian by the throat +once again, not to loose this time till he had crushed out his +life, or beat out his life, or stabbed out his life; or all these, +and torn him piecemeal likewise: and ah! then, not till then, +bleed his heart with weeping, like a child, like a girl, over the +piteous fate of his poor lost love. + +On--on--on--through the aching time, toiling and straining in the +track of those two superb runners, aware of the marvel of their +endurance, but unaware of the marvel of their speed, that, in the +three hours before midnight had overpassed all that vast distance +that he could only traverse from twilight to twilight. For clear +daylight was passing when he came to the edge of an old marl-pit, +and saw how the two who had gone before had stamped and trampled +together in desperate peril on the verge. And here fresh blood +stains spoke to him of a valiant defence against his infamous +brother; and he followed where the blood had dripped till the cold +had staunched its flow, taking a savage gratification from this +evidence that Christian had been gashed deeply, maddening afresh +with desire to do likewise more excellently, and so slake his +murderous hate. And he began to know that through all his despair +he had entertained a germ of hope, that grew apace, rained upon by +his brother's blood. + +He strove on as best he might, wrung now by an access of hope, now +of despair, in agony to reach the end, however terrible, sick with +the aching of the toiled miles that deferred it. + +And the light went lingering out of the sky, giving place to +uncertain stars. + +He came to the finish. + +Two bodies lay in a narrow place. Christian's was one, but the +other beyond not White Fell's. There where the footsteps ended lay +a great white wolf. + +At the sight Sweyn's strength was blasted; body and soul he was +struck down grovelling. + +The stars had grown sure and intense before he stirred from where +he had dropped prone. Very feebly he crawled to his dead brother, +and laid his hands upon him, and crouched so, afraid to look or +stir farther. + +Cold, stiff, hours dead. Yet the dead body was his only shelter +and stay in that most dreadful hour. His soul, stripped bare of +all sceptic comfort, cowered, shivering, naked, abject; and the +living clung to the dead out of piteous need for grace from the +soul that had passed away. + +He rose to his knees, lifting the body. Christian had fallen face +forward in the snow, with his arms flung up and wide, and so had +the frost made him rigid: strange, ghastly, unyielding to Sweyn's +lifting, so that he laid him down again and crouched above, with +his arms fast round him, and a low heart-wrung groan. + +[Illustration: Sweyn's Finding] + +When at last he found force to raise his brother's body and gather +it in his arms, tight clasped to his breast, he tried to face the +Thing that lay beyond. The sight set his limbs in a palsy with +horror and dread. His senses had failed and fainted in utter +cowardice, but for the strength that came from holding dead +Christian in his arms, enabling him to compel his eyes to endure +the sight, and take into the brain the complete aspect of the +Thing. No wound, only blood stains on the feet. The great grim +jaws had a savage grin, though dead-stiff. And his kiss: he could +bear it no longer, and turned away, nor ever looked again. + +And the dead man in his arms, knowing the full horror, had +followed and faced it for his sake; had suffered agony and death +for his sake; in the neck was the deep death gash, one arm and +both hands were dark with frozen blood, for his sake! Dead he knew +him, as in life he had not known him, to give the right meed of +love and worship. Because the outward man lacked perfection and +strength equal to his, he had taken the love and worship of that +great pure heart as his due; he, so unworthy in the inner reality, +so mean, so despicable, callous, and contemptuous towards the +brother who had laid down his life to save him. He longed for +utter annihilation, that so he might lose the agony of knowing +himself so unworthy such perfect love. The frozen calm of death on +the face appalled him. He dared not touch it with lips that had +cursed so lately, with lips fouled by kiss of the horror that had +been death. + +He struggled to his feet, still clasping Christian. The dead man +stood upright within his arm, frozen rigid. The eyes were not +quite closed; the head had stiffened, bowed slightly to one side; +the arms stayed straight and wide. It was the figure of one +crucified, the blood-stained hands also conforming. + +So living and dead went back along the track that one had passed +in the deepest passion of love, and one in the deepest passion of +hate. All that night Sweyn toiled through the snow, bearing the +weight of dead Christian, treading back along the steps he before +had trodden, when he was wronging with vilest thoughts, and +cursing with murderous hatred, the brother who all the while lay +dead for his sake. + +Cold, silence, darkness encompassed the strong man bowed with the +dolorous burden; and yet he knew surely that that night he entered +hell, and trod hell-fire along the homeward road, and endured +through it only because Christian was with him. And he knew surely +that to him Christian had been as Christ, and had suffered and +died to save him from his sins. + + +[Illustration] + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WERE-WOLF*** + + +******* This file should be named 13131.txt or 13131.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/3/13131 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/13131.zip b/old/13131.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7858d8c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13131.zip |
