before morning; while now another dawn was approaching, and the hunters
were at least ten miles from the Furnace. He would have liked to stay,
sleep, where he was; but the labour of preparing a proper resting place
would be as great as returning to Shadrach. Besides, Fanny Gilkan was
with him, with her new, cautious regard for the world's opinion. They
stood silent for a moment, under a fleet dejection born of the hour and
a cold, seeping mist of which he became suddenly conscious. The barrel
of his gun was wet, and instinctively he wiped off the lock. Two men
passing brushed heavily against him and stopped. "Who is it," one
demanded, "John Rajennas? By God, it's a long way back to old Shadrach
with splintering shoes." A face drew near Howat, and then retreated.
"Oh, Mr. Penny! I didn't know you were up on the hunt." It was, he
recognized, one of the coaling men who worked for Dan Hesa. The other
discovered Fanny Gilkan. "And Fanny, too," the voice grew inimical. The
men drew away, and a sharp whispering fluctuated out of the darkness.

"Come," Howat Penny said sharply; "we must get back or stay out here for
the rest of the night. I don't mind admitting I'd like to be where I
could sleep." She moved forward, now tacitly taking a place behind him,
and he led the return, tramping doggedly in the shortest direction
possible.

The hollows and stream beds were filled with the ghostly mist, and
bitterly chill; the night paled slightly, diluted with grey; there was a
distant clamour of crows. They entered the Furnace tract by a path at
the base of the rise from where they had started. On the left, at a
crossing of roads, one leading to Myrtle Forge, the other a track for
the charcoal sleds, a blacksmith's open shed held a faint smoulder on
the hearth. The blast from Shadrach Furnace rose perpendicular in the
still air.