Page:The trail of the golden horn.djvu/102

98 she forgot even this as she floundered around in the snow. Strange noises sounded in her ears. She was sure that she heard the howling of wolves, and she shivered with fear. At times she was fighting with an imaginary enemy, and again shouting at the top of her voice. All sense of time and place was blotted out for her now as she stood knee-deep in the snow. She did not heed the merciless cold, nor the desolation of her surroundings. She was in another world of strange fancies. Sometimes she was with Tim, calling him endearing names, or pleading with him to come to her. Then she was at the mission school, talking and laughing with her companions.

But this excitement only tended to weaken her already tired body. Ere long her knees gave way beneath her. She sank upon the snow, and made no effort to rise. And there she lay, babbling of other days, while the pitiless cold struck deeper and deeper into her chilled body.