She remembered to have seen a candle among the articles on the shelf, and she began to grope her way toward the matches.

Suddenly she stopped.
What was that panting?
Was it her own breathing, quickened with a sudden nameless terror?
or was there something outside?
Her heart seemed to stop beating while she listened.

Yes! it was a panting outside--a panting now increased, multiplied, redoubled, mixed with the sounds of rustling, tearing, craunching, and occasionally a quick, impatient snarl.

She crept on her hands and knees to the opening and looked out.

At first the ground seemed to be undulating between her and the opposite tree.