The Golden Snare

inter sun seemed to concentrate itself on the one window of Bram's habitation, and flooded th

e golden snare. It billowed over her arms and breast to her hips, aflame with the living fires of the reflected sun. His second impression was that his entrance had interrupted her while she wa

hat were looking at him. He had never seen such eyes. They were like violet amethysts. Her face was dead white.

peaking gently. "I am Philip Raine o

ace. His heart choked him as he waited for her lips to move. It was a mystery to him afterward why he accepted the situation so utterly as he

ly she ran to the window, and Philip saw the grip of her hands at the sill as she looked out. Through the gate Bram was driving his wolves. When she faced him again, her eyes had in them the look of a creature threatened by a whip. It amazed and

bronze insignia of the Service. Its effect on her amazed him even more than had her sudden fear of him. It occurred to him suddenly that with a two w

ially to help you, if you need help. I could have got Bram farther back, but there was a reason why I did

the window. Then she began talking, swiftly and eagerly, in a language that was as strange to Philip as the mystery of her presence in Bram Johnson's cabin. She knew that he could not understand, and suddenly she came up close to him and put a finger to his lips, and then to her

light leapt into the girl's eyes. Before the door could open she had darted into the room f

glaring hungrily into the cabin. Bram was burdened under the load he had brought from the sledge. He droppe

the girl moving about. A dozen emotions were fighting in Philip. If he had possessed a weapon he would have ended the matter with Bram then, for the light that was burning like a strange flame in the wolf-man's eyes convinced him that

. It was not French or German or any tongue that he had ever heard. Her voice was pure and soft. It trembled a little, and she was breathing quickly. But the look in her face that had at first horrified him was no longer there. She had braided her hair and had coiled the shining strands on the crown of her head, and the coloring in her face was like that of a rare painting. I

t it must be so-and all the horrors of the situation that he had built up for himself fell about him in confusing disorder. The girl, as sh

at was like a paean of triumph. He dropped on his knees beside the dunnage bag

him like a flash. For some reason she had forced herself to appear that way to the wolf-man. She had forced herself to smile, forced the look of gladness into her face, and the words from her li

ssi-han e

s face. All at once an inspiration came to him. Bram's back was toward him, and he pointed to the sti

themselves in the thick braids of her hair. Her eyes dilated-and suddenly understanding flashed upon him. She was telling him what he already knew-that Bram Johnson was mad, and he repeated after her the "Tossi-tossi," tapping his forehead suggestively, and n

f-man rose from his knees, still mumbling to himself in incoherent exultation, the great and unanswerable question pounded in Philip's b

e had seen in Bram's. It was as if, in fact, a curtain had lifted before his eyes revealing to him an unbelievable truth, and something of the hell through which she had gone. She was hungry-FOR SOMETHING THAT WAS NOT FLESH! Swiftly the thought flashed upon him why the wolf-man had traveled so far to the south, and why he had attacked him for possession of his food supply. It was that he might bring these things to the girl. He knew that it w