Page:Son of the wind.djvu/408

RV 390 and trotted across the inclosure whinnying with high head. She stood at the edge of the water looking over the stockade at the two men with an almost human air of being puzzled.

"I'll show you," the half-breed said.

Carron followed him across the ford, and through the trees. On every side were the signs of what he had carried out, the print of himself everywhere, from the footsteps on the ground, to the strong sides of the corral of which he had glimpses between branches. They turned sharply to the left, and coming into a little break in the timber stood at the gate and looked over it at what was within.

At this upper end of it were the few groups of pines that had helped to conceal the beginning of the canvas. Here, pressed in among the trunks of the trees, not lying on the ground, yet scarcely standing upright, he saw his captive.

He saw for a flash with that rare impartial eye which perceives the thing neither as it has been nor as hope expects it will presently be, but as it is in fact, in that moment. He saw Son of the Wind already marked by captivity, soiled with earth, stained with sweat, sick with defiance. He felt as a hunter who has taken an eagle. What had caught desire was the proud flight in the air. It was that the man had wanted to possess; and lo, fierce eyes