The superintendent did not pause to think where he was going when he stepped into the open air.  The cold wind struck his face and a few fine particles touched his cheek.  The sky had partly cleared, so that he could see the fine coating of snow around him, but after all, very little had fallen.

“If I can keep the path,” he thought, “I will reach the village, but that is no easy matter—­ah! there it is again.”

The peculiar odor that had mystified him before was in the air.  He recalled that Hugh and Tom had made an allusion to it that he did not understand.

“It may come from their chimney and be caused by something burning; but I looked closely at the wood on the hearth and saw nothing else.”

A natural impulse led him, after walking a few rods, to look behind him.  He had heard nothing, but knowing the surly mood of the couple, he thought it probable they might follow him.

The door of the cabin, was drawn wide open and the form of a man stood out to view, as if stamped with ink on the flaming background made by the fire beyond.  His lengthened shadow was thrown down the path almost to the feet of Harvey.  The fellow no doubt was peering into the gloom and listening.

“I wonder whether they mean to dog me,” said Harvey; “it will be an easy matter to do so, for they know every part of the wood, while I am a stranger.  They are none too good to put me out of the way; it is such men who have no fear of the law, but they shall not take me unawares.”

While still looking toward the cabin, all became dark again.  The door was closed, but he could not be sure whether the man stood outside or within.

“If he means to do me harm he will soon be at my heels.”

But the straining eyes could not catch the outlines of any one, and the only sound was the moaning wind among the bare branches.

“He has gone back into the house, but may come out again.”

And so, while picking his way through the dim forests, you may be sure that Harvey Bradley looked behind him many times.  It makes one shiver with dread to suspect that a foe is softly following him.  Harvey had buttoned his pea jacket to his chin and he now turned up the collar, so that it touched his ears.  His hands were shoved deep into the side pockets and the right one rested upon his revolver that he had withdrawn from its usual place at his hip.  He was on the alert for whatever might come.

He was pleased with one fact:  the path to which so many references were made, was so clearly marked that he found it easy to avoid going wrong.

“If I had had sense enough to take the right course when I first struck it, I would have been home by this time.”

After turning around several times without seeing or hearing anything suspicious, he came to believe that however glad O’Hara and Hansell might be to do him harm, they lacked the courage, unless almost sure against detection.