get out our blankets?"

"We might as well make ourselves comfortable," replied the young
Indian. "You sit here, and listen while I undo the pack."

He went noiselessly to Mukoki, who was leaning against the pack, and
Rod could hear them fumbling at the straps on the bundle. After a
little Wabi returned and the two boys spread out their blankets beside
the rock upon which they had been sitting. But there was no thought of
sleep in the mind of either, though both were dead tired from their
long day's work. They sat closer together, shoulder touching shoulder,
and unknown to his companion Roderick drew his revolver, cocked it
silently and placed it where he could feel the cold touch of its steel
between his fingers. He knew that he was the only one of the three who
fully realized the horror of their situation.

Mukoki's mind, simple in its reasoning of things that did not belong
to the wilderness, had accepted the assurances and explanations of
Rod and Wabigoon. Wabi, half-bred in the wild, felt alarm only in the
sense of physical peril. It was different with the white youth. What
is there in civilization that sends the chill of terror to one's heart
more quickly than the presence of a human being who has gone mad? And
this madman was at large! At that very instant he might be listening
to their breathing and their whispered words half a dozen feet away;
any moment might see the blackness take form and the terrible thing
hurl itself at their throats. Rod, unlike Wabigoon, knew that the
powers of this strange creature of the chasm were greater than their
own, that it could travel with the swiftness and silence of an animal
through the darkness, that perhaps it could smell them and feel their
presence as it passed on its way to the plain. He was anxious now to