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His fourteen pounds of flesh and bone landed with the force of a stone, and Oohoomisew was torn from his hold and flung with a great flutter of wings upon his side. Before he could recover his balance Miki was at him again, striking full at his head, where he had struck at the wounded crane.
It was a low, terrible laugh, half smothered in his coarse black beard, and it sent an odd chill through Miki. He turned after that and went into the cabin. Nanette rose to meet him, her great dark eyes glowing in a face dead white. She had not yet risen above the shock of Le Beau's tragic death, and yet in those eyes there was already something re-born.
It was the silence of Mutai the "belly god" the god who eats himself to sleep each night that hovered strangely over this Post of Fort O' God, three hundred miles from civilization. There was a light in the Factor's room, and Challoner entered with Miki at his heels. MacDonnell, the Scotchman, was puffing moodily on his pipe.
With a burst of speed Miki gained a little. Then steadily Lightning drew abreast of him, a grim and merciless shadow of doom. A hundred yards farther on and a little to the right was the cairn. But Miki could not run to the right without turning into Lightning's jaws, and he realized now that if he reached the cairn his enemy would be upon him before he could dive into the tunnel and face about.
And Nanette hugged him tight, even as she hugged the baby, for it was Miki who had brought her freedom, and hope, and life. What had passed was no longer a tragedy. It was justice. God had sent Miki to do for her what a father or a brother would have done.
Above the sweep of the rapids he could now hear the growling roar of a waterfall below. It was at this unfortunate moment that Miki decided to venture one more experiment with Neewa. With a friendly yip he swung out one of his paws.
"And it is YOU YOU you she-devil! who shall eat his heart alive! I will force it down your throat: I will " He was dragging Miki forth by the chain. The club rose as Miki's head came through. In another instant it would have beaten his head to a pulp but Nanette was between it and the dog like a flash, and the blow went wild.
Thought of her made him whine. And Miki, facing the vast loneliness of his new world, and thinking of his master, whined in reply. Both were hungry. The amazing swiftness with which their misfortunes had descended upon them had given them no time in which to eat.
Le Beau's thick lips drew back in an ugly leer, and he gave a savage curse. Nanette flinched as if struck a blow. "Get up, you fool!" he snarled. She obeyed, shrinking back with the baby in her arms. Miki saw the change, and the greenish fire returned into his eyes when he caught sight of Le Beau. A deep and wolfish snarl rose in his throat. Le Beau turned on Nanette.
It was then that Miki turned with a strange whine but it was Neewa now who took the lead Neewa, whose forebears had ten thousand times run this same wild race with death in the centuries since their world was born. He did not need the keenness of far vision now.
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