II

BILLY MEETS THE WOMAN

Out of the gloom a sledge approached slowly. It took form at last in a
dim shadow, and MacVeigh saw that it would pass very near to him. He
made out, one after another, a human figure, three dogs, and the
toboggan. There was something appalling in the quiet of this specter
of life looming up out of the night. He could no longer hear the
sledge, though it was within fifty paces of him. The figure in advance
walked slowly and with bowed head, and the dogs and the sledge
followed in a ghostly line. Human leader and animals were oblivious to
MacVeigh, silent and staring in the white night. They were opposite
him before he moved.

Then he strode out quickly, with a loud holloa. At the sound of his
voice there followed a low cry, the dogs stopped in their traces, and
the figure ran back to the sledge. MacVeigh drew his revolver. Half a
dozen long strides and he had reached the sledge. From the opposite
side a white face stared at him, and with one hand resting on the
heavily laden sledge, and his revolver at level with his waist,
MacVeigh stared back in speechless astonishment.

For the great, dark, frightened eyes that looked across at him, and
the white, staring face he recognized as the eyes and the face of a
woman. For a moment he was unable to move or speak, and the woman
raised her hands and pushed back her fur hood so that he saw her hair
shimmering in the starlight. She was a white woman. Suddenly he saw
something in her face that struck him with a chill, and he looked down
at the thing under his hand. It was a long, rough box. He drew back a