He kept on with slackening speed until close to the shore, and it would not do to go any further.

An overhanging limb brushed his face.
But his eye was on the wolves further out in the stream.

The place was one of the few ones where the course was such that no shadow was along either bank.

The moment most of the creatures were drawn well over toward the right shore, Sterry did as his friends did awhile before, skimming abruptly to the left and almost back over his own trail, and then darting around the pack.

The line was that of a semicircle, whose extreme rim on the left was several rods beyond the last of the wolves swarming to the right.
"Now!" called Sterry at the moment of turning with all the speed at his command.
Critical as was the moment, he flung one glance behind him.