He spoke in a voice low and trembling, as if overcome for the moment by some strong emotion.
"See--see there!" he whispered.

"I've hit it, Philip Steele, and what does it mean?
I've come over seventy miles of barren, through night an' storm, an' I've hit Pierre Thoreau's cabin as fair as a shot! Oh, man, man, I couldn't do it once in ten thousand times!" He gripped Philip's arm, and his voice rose in excited triumph.

"I tell 'ee, it means that--that God--'r something--must be with me!" "With us," said Philip, staring hard.
"With me," replied DeBar so fiercely that the other started involuntarily.

"It's a miracle, an omen, and it means that I'm going to win!" His fingers gripped deeper, and he said more gently, "Phil, I've grown to like you, and if you believe in God as we believe in Him up here--if you believe He tells things in the stars, the winds and things like this, if you're afraid of death--take some grub and go back! I mean it, Phil, for if you stay, an' fight, there is going to be but one end.
I will kill you!".