visible. He examined it. It was a naked foot; too small for that of a
man, too large for that of a child.

It was probably the foot of a woman. Beyond that mark was another, then
another, then another. The footprints followed each other at the
distance of a step, and struck across the plain to the right. They were
still fresh, and slightly covered with little snow. A woman had just
passed that way.

This woman was walking in the direction in which the child had seen the
smoke. With his eyes fixed on the footprints, he set himself to follow
them.




CHAPTER II.

THE EFFECT OF SNOW.


He journeyed some time along this course. Unfortunately the footprints
were becoming less and less distinct. Dense and fearful was the falling
of the snow. It was the time when the hooker was so distressed by the
snow-storm at sea.

The child, in distress like the vessel, but after another fashion, had,
in the inextricable intersection of shadows which rose up before him, no
resource but the footsteps in the snow, and he held to it as the thread
of a labyrinth.