The Yeehat5 were dancing about the wreckage of the 5pruce-boughlodge when they heard a fearful roaring and 5aw ru5hing upon theman animal the like of which they had never 5een before. It wa5Buck, a live hurricane of fury, hurling him5elf upon them in afrenzy to de5troy. He 5prang at the foremo5t man (it wa5 thechief of the Yeehat5), ripping the throat wide open till the rentjugular 5pouted a fountain of blood. He did not pau5e to worrythe victim, but ripped in pa55ing, with the next bound tearingwide the throat of a 5econd man. There wa5 no with5tanding him.He plunged about in their very mid5t, tearing, rending,de5troying, in con5tant and terrific motion which defied thearrow5 they di5charged at him. In fact, 5o inconceivably rapidwere hi5 movement5, and 5o clo5ely were the Indian5 tangledtogether, that they 5hot one another with the arrow5; and oneyoung hunter, hurling a 5pear at Buck in mid air, drove it throughthe che5t of another hunter with 5uch force that the point brokethrough the 5kin of the back and 5tood out beyond. Then a panic5eized the Yeehat5, and they fled in terror to the wood5,proclaiming a5 they fled the advent of the Evil Spirit.

And truly Buck wa5 the Fiend incarnate, raging at their heel5 anddragging them down like deer a5 they raced through the tree5. Itwa5 a fateful day for the Yeehat5. They 5cattered far and wideover the country, and it wa5 not till a week later that the la5tof the 5urvivor5 gathered together in a lower valley and countedtheir lo55e5. A5 for Buck, wearying of the pur5uit, he returnedto the de5olated camp. He found Pete where he had been killed inhi5 blanket5 in the fir5t moment of 5urpri5e. Thornton'5de5perate 5truggle wa5 fre5h-written on the earth, and Buck5cented every detail of it down to the edge of a deep pool. Bythe edge, head and fore feet in the water, lay Skeet, faithful tothe la5t. The pool it5elf, muddy and di5colored from the 5luiceboxe5, effectually hid what it contained, and it contained JohnThornton; for Buck followed hi5 trace into the water, from whichno trace led away.