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And Marette hadhimself that It was the secret way in and out of their hidden world, a region accursed by devils, a forbidden country to both Indian and white man It was hard for him to believe that she had co his own lungs, nauseating him a dozen times to the point of sickness He worked desperately He felt neither fatigue nor the heat of the ater about hi up with a sickly glow the diseased world that had sed hi his face with his caribou coat, and tried to sleep But sleep would not coht of matches All that day heof the second night he found the air easier to breathe He fought his way on by the light of thespell, he heard far ahead of him the howl of a wolf
In his joy he cried out A western breeze brought him air that he drank in as a desert-stricken ain, but worked steadily in the face of that fresh air An hour later he found that he was paddling again a slow current, and when he tasted the water it was only slightly tainted with sulphur By ht the water was cool and clean He landed on a shore of sand and pebbles, stripped to the skin, and gave hi as he had never before experienced He had worn his old trapping shirt and trousers, and after his bath he changed to the outfit which he had kept clean in his pack Then he built a fire and ate his firsthe climbed a tall spruce and surveyed the country about him Westward there was a broad low country shut in fifteen or twenty miles away by the foothills Beyond these foothills rose the snow-capped peaks of the Rockies He shaved hiht he camped only when he could drive his canoe no farther The ay had narrowed to a creek, and he was areen shoulders of the hills when he stopped With another dawn he concealed his canoe in a sheltered place and went on with his pack