The bleeding creature at his feet was the most beautiful animal he had ever seen--and the tip of its thick black fur was silver gray.
Then, in that lonely chasm, there went up a great human whoop of joy.
"A silver fox!" Rod spoke the words aloud.

For five minutes he stood and looked upon his prize.

He held it up and stroked it, and from what Wabi and Mukoki had told him he knew that the silken pelt of this creature was worth more to them than all the furs at the camp together.
He made no effort to skin it, but put the animal in his pack and resumed his slow, noiseless exploration of the gulch.
He had now passed beyond those points in the range from which he had looked down into this narrow, shut-in world.

Ever more wild and gloomy became the chasm.

At times the two walls of rock seemed almost to meet far above his head; under gigantic, overhanging crags there lurked the shadows of night.