CHAPTER 9
Stains on the Snow
MARION was glad to leave the lean-to and follow her father. She started aside and gave voice to a slight cry of fear as the toe of her moccasined foot touched the body of a wolf stiffening upon the snow. The forest seemed filled with horrible things, dead and alive. And somewhere in their secret depths was Zell, the beautiful girl to whom she had become so deeply attached. Was she alive? or was she, too, lying upon the cold snow like the wolves around her? But perhaps she was alive, and longing to die. The thought was terrible. Why were base men allowed to roam at large, to prey upon helpless and innocent women and girls? She knew that it was permitted in towns and cities, so could it be otherwise on the ragged edge of civilisation? How she longed for the strength of a man, her father’s, for instance, that she might go about redressing human wrongs.
She thought of these things as she struggled bravely along the trail. She had no snow-shoes, and she could have made very little progress without her father’s strong supporting arm. She did not wish to give up, but ere long she felt that she could go no farther. A great weakness swept upon her, which forced her to sink down upon the snow with a weary gasp. For a second Hugo hardly knew what to do. Then without
a word he stooped, picked her up boldly and bore her
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