By this time he felt that Jean should have returned, and he was confident that there were others of the forest people besides Pierre, Renault, and the Indian in the forest near the pit.

For an hour he kept up a swift pace.

Later they came to a dense cover of black spruce two miles from Adare House.

They had traversed a part of this when the dogs stopped.

Directly ahead of them had fallen a dead cedar, barring the trail.