He ceased to exist. At least, nothing of him was seen, not a tail, not
an eye-gleam. Yet during the next two hours he learnt everything,
private and public, there was to be learnt. Also, he had been over the
surroundings almost to a yard. Nothing could have escaped him. No
detail of risk and danger, of the chance of being seen even, had been
overlooked; for he was a master at his craft, the greatest master in
the wild, perhaps. The wolf? My dear sirs, the wolf was an innocent
suckling cub beside Gulo, look you, and his brain and his cunning were
not the brain and the cunning of a beast at all, but of a devil.

When, after a very long time, he reappeared upon his original track, it
was as a dark blotch, indistinguishable from a dozen other dark blots
of moon-shadow, creeping forward belly-flat in the snow. This
belly-creep, hugging always every available inch of cover, he kept up
till he came to a big clearing, and--there were the reindeer. At
least, there was one reindeer, a doe, standing with her back towards
him--a quite young doe. The rest were half-hidden in the snow, which
they had trampled into a maze of paths in and out about the clearing,
which was, in fact, what is called their "yard."

A minute of tense silence followed after Gulo had got as close as he
could without being seen. Then he rushed.

The reindeer swung half-round, gave one snort, and a great bound. But
Gulo had covered half the intervening space before she knew, and when
she bounded it was with him hanging on to her.

Followed instantly a wild upspringing of snorting beasts, and a mad,
senseless stampede of floundering deer all round and about the
clearing--a fearful mix-up, somewhere in the midst of which,