He remembered now that he had seen that strange gleam before, that he had gone straight to it from the ridge and had found it to be a sheet of crystal ice frozen to the side of a rock from above which the water of a spring gushed forth.

Without waiting for his companions he hurried down the ridge and sped like a deer across the narrow plain at its foot.

A five-minute run brought him to the rock, and for a moment he paused, his heart almost choking him in its excitement.

Just beyond this he had first encountered the strange trail.

There were no signs of it left in the snow, but he saw other things which led him on: a huge rock thrusting itself out of the chaos of white, a dead poplar which stood in his path, and at last, half a mile ahead, the edge of a dense forest.
He turned and waved his arms wildly to Mukoki and Wabigoon, who were far behind.