“I rubbed my smarting eyes with my benumbed hand; we were gaining upon it second by second; two of those hell hounds of the baron’s were already within a few leaps of it.

“Soon I was able to make out two figures, one standing up and urging the horses on with whip and voice, the other clinging to the back seat and looking toward us in an attitude of terror.  A great fear crept into my half-frozen brain—­were we not bringing deadly danger instead of help to these travelers?  Great God! did the baron mean to use them as a bait for his new method of wolf hunting?

“I would have turned upon Kossowski with a cry of expostulation or warning, but he, urging on his hounds as he galloped on their flank, howling and gesticulating like a veritable Hun, passed me by like a flash—­and all at once I knew.”

Marshfield paused for a moment and sent his pale smile round upon his listeners, who now showed no signs of sleepiness; he knocked the ash from his cigar, twisted the latter round in his mouth, and added dryly: 

“And I confess it seemed to me a little strong even for a baron in the Carpathians.  The travelers were our quarry.  But the reason why the Lord of Yany had turned man-hunter I was yet to learn.  Just then I had to direct my energies to frustrating his plans.  I used my spurs mercilessly.  While I drew up even with him I saw the two figures in the sleigh change places; he who had hitherto driven now faced back, while his companion took the reins, there was the pale blue sheen of a revolver barrel under the moonlight, followed by a yellow flash, and the nearest hound rolled over in the snow.

“With an oath the baron twisted round in his saddle to call up and urge on the remainder.  My horse had taken fright at the report and dashed irresistibly forward, bringing me at once almost level with the fugitives, and the next instant the revolver was turned menacingly toward me.  There was no time to explain; my pistol was already drawn, and as another of the brutes bounded up, almost under my horse’s feet, I loosed it upon him.  I must have let off both barrels at once, for the weapon flew out of my hand, but the hound’s back was broken.  I presume the traveler understood; at any rate, he did not fire at me.

“In moments of intense excitement like these, strangely enough, the mind is extraordinarily open to impressions.  I shall never forget that man’s countenance in the sledge, as he stood upright and defied us in his mortal danger; it was young, very handsome, the features not distorted, but set into a sort of desperate, stony calm, and I knew it, beyond all doubt, for that of an Englishman.  And then I saw his companion—­it was the baron’s wife.  And I understood why the bells had been removed.