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The dog dashed ahead, along the ascending trail, which led up toward the canyon riht

Travis paused at the syca at the night-dark hole in the forest where the descending portion of the trail began What was co?

The shrill cries of the cicadas cut off siraph needle was lifted fro The woods were preternaturally silent

Then Travis heard so noise A clatter as of dislodged stones A faint rustle of dry brush The thing sounded closer than it probably was, for sound was ah the narrow tunnel of trees Nevertheless, the creature was co fast Very fast

For the first tirave peril He knew that nothing in the woods was big or bold enough to attack him, but his intellect was overruled by instinct His heart haher path, the retriever had becoo, heup the deer trail, driven mad by disease or pain But the cabin dwellers and weekend hikers-outriders of civilization-had pushed the few re bears much farther back into the Santa Anas

From the sound of it, the unknown beast ithin seconds of reaching the clearing between the lower and higher trails

The length of Travis’s spine, shivers tracked likedopane

He wanted to see what the thing was, but at the saone cold with dread, a purely instinctive fear

Farther up the canyon, the golden retriever barked urgently

Travis turned and ran

He was in excellent shape, not a pound overweight With the panting retriever leading, Travis tucked his ar under the fe-hanging branches The studded soles of his hiking boots gave good traction; he slipped on loose stones and on slithery layers of dry pine needles, but he did not fall As he ran through a false fire of flickering sunlight and shadow, another fire began to burn in his lungs

Travis Cornell’s life had been full of danger and tragedy, but he’d never flinched fro In the worst of times, he cal peculiar happened He lost control For the first ti a deep and pri had ever reached hiooseflesh and cold sweat, and he did not knohy the unknown pursuer should fill him with such absolute terror

He did not look back Initially, he did not want to turn his eyes away fro trail because he was afraid he would crash into a low branch But as he ran, his panic swelled, and by the tione a couple of hundred yards, the reason he did not look back was because he was afraid of what he ht see

He knew that his response was irrational The prickly sensation along the back of his neck and the iciness in his gut were symptoms of a purely superstitious terror But the civilized and educated Travis Cornell had turned over the reins to the frightened child-savage that lives in every huhost of e once were-and he could not easily regain control even though he are of the absurdity of his behavior Brute instinct ruled, and instinct told hi and just run

Near the head of the canyon, the trail turned left and carved a winding course up the steep north wall toward the ridge Travis rounded a bend, saw a log lying across the path, ju wood He fell forward, flat on his chest Stunned, he could not get his breath, could notto pounce on him and tear out his throat

The retriever dashed back down the trail and leaped over Travis, landing sure-footedly on the path behind hi theed Travis in the clearing

Travis rolled over and sat up, gasping He saw nothing on the trail below Then he realized the retriever was not concerned about anything in that direction but was standing sideways on the trail, facing the underbrush in the forest to the east of the saliva, it barked stridently, so hard and loud that each explosive sound hurt Travis’s ears The tone of savage fury in its voice was daunting The dog arning the unseen enemy to stay back

"Easy boy," Travis said softly "Easy"

The retriever stopped barking but did not glance at Travis It stared intently into the brush, peeling its pebbly black lips off its teeth and growling deep in its throat

Still breathing hard, Travis got to his feet and looked east into the woods Evergreens, sycamores, a few larches Shadows like swatches of dark cloth were fastened here and there by golden pins and needles of light Brush Briars Cli vines A feorn toothlike for out of the ordinary

When he reached down and put a hand upon the retriever’s head, the dog stopped growling, as if it understood his intention Travis drew a breath, held it, and listened for movement in the brush

The cicadas re in the trees The woods were as still as if the vast, elaborate clockwork

He was sure that he was not the cause of the abrupt silence His passage through the canyon had not previously disturbed either birds or cicadas

So was out there An intruder of which the ordinary forest creatures clearly did not approve

He took a deep breath and held it again, straining to hear the slightest movement in the woods This ti, the soft crunch of dry leaves-and the unnervingly peculiar, heavy, ragged breathing of so It sounded about forty feet away, but he could not pinpoint its location

At his side, the retriever had gone rigid Its floppy ears were slightly pricked, straining forward

The unknown adversary’s raspy breathing was so creepy-whether because of the echo effect of the forest and canyon, or because it was just creepy to begin with-that Travis quickly took off his backpack, unsnapped the flap, and withdrew the loaded 38

The dog stared at the gun Travis had the weird feeling that the animal knehat the revolver was-and approved of the weapon

Wondering if the thing in the woods was a man, Travis called out: "Who’s there? Co in the brush was now underlaid with a thick uttural resonance electrified Travis His heart beat even harder, and he went as rigid as the retriever beside hi seconds, he could not understand why the noise itself had sent such a powerful current of fear through hihtened hiroas definitely that of an animalyet there was also an indescribable quality that bespoke intelligence, a tone and ht make The more he listened, the more Travis decided it was neither strictly an animal nor human sound But if neitherthen what the hell was it?

He saw the high brush stirring Straight ahead So toward hi

Now just thirty feet away