Time enough to fly; time enough to put miles between her and the hound, before he should come upon her fresh trail; time enough to escape away through the dense forest, and hide in the recesses of Panther Gorge; yes, time enough.But there was the fawn.The cry of the hound was repeated, more distinct this time.The mother instinctively bounded away a few paces.The fawn started up with an anxious bleat: the doe turned; she came back; she couldn't leave it.
She bent over it, and licked it, and seemed to say, "Come, my child:
we are pursued: we must go." She walked away towards the west, and the little thing skipped after her.It was slow going for the slender legs, over the fallen logs, and through the rasping bushes.
The doe bounded in advance, and waited: the fawn scrambled after her, slipping and tumbling along, very groggy yet on its legs, and whining a good deal because its mother kept always moving away from it.The fawn evidently did not hear the hound: the little innocent would even have looked sweetly at the dog, and tried to make friends with it, if the brute had been rushing upon him.By all the means at her command the doe urged her young one on; but it was slow work.She might have been a mile away while they were making a few rods.Whenever the fawn caught up, he was quite content to frisk about.He wanted more breakfast, for one thing; and his mother wouldn't stand still.She moved on continually; and his weak legs were tangled in the roots of the narrow deer-path.
Shortly came a sound that threw the doe into a panic of terror,--a short, sharp yelp, followed by a prolonged howl, caught up and reechoed by other bayings along the mountain-side.The doe knew what that meant.One hound had caught her trail, and the whole pack responded to the "view-halloo." The danger was certain now; it was near.She could not crawl on in this way: the dogs would soon be upon them.She turned again for flight: the fawn, scrambling after her, tumbled over, and bleated piteously.The baying, emphasized now by the yelp of certainty, came nearer.Flight with the fawn was impossible.The doe returned and stood by it, head erect, and nostrils distended.She stood perfectly still, but trembling.
Perhaps she was thinking.The fawn took advantage of the situation, and began to draw his luncheon ration.The doe seemed to have made up her mind.She let him finish.The fawn, having taken all he wanted, lay down contentedly, and the doe licked him for a moment.
Then, with the swiftness of a bird, she dashed away, and in a moment was lost in the forest.She went in the direction of the hounds.
According to all human calculations, she was going into the jaws of death.So she was: all human calculations are selfish.She kept straight on, hearing the baying every moment more distinctly.She descended the slope of the mountain until she reached the more open forest of hard-wood.It was freer going here, and the cry of the pack echoed more resoundingly in the great spaces.She was going due east, when (judging by the sound, the hounds were not far off, though they were still hidden by a ridge) she turned short away to the north, and kept on at a good pace.In five minutes more she heard the sharp, exultant yelp of discovery, and then the deep-mouthed howl of pursuit.The hounds had struck her trail where she turned, and the fawn was safe.
The doe was in good running condition, the ground was not bad, and she felt the exhilaration of the chase.For the moment, fear left her, and she bounded on with the exaltation of triumph.For a quarter of an hour she went on at a slapping pace, clearing the moose-bushes with bound after bound, flying over the fallen logs, pausing neither for brook nor ravine.The baying of the hounds grew fainter behind her.But she struck a bad piece of going, a dead-wood slash.It was marvelous to see her skim over it, leaping among its intricacies, and not breaking her slender legs.No other living animal could do it.But it was killing work.She began to pant fearfully; she lost ground.The baying of the hounds was nearer.
She climbed the hard-wood hill at a slower gait; but, once on more level, free ground, her breath came back to her, and she stretched away with new courage, and maybe a sort of contempt of her heavy pursuers.
After running at high speed perhaps half a mile farther, it occurred to her that it would be safe now to turn to the west, and, by a wide circuit, seek her fawn.But, at the moment, she heard a sound that chilled her heart.It was the cry of a hound to the west of her.
The crafty brute had made the circuit of the slash, and cut off her retreat.There was nothing to do but to keep on; and on she went, still to the north, with the noise of the pack behind her.In five minutes more she had passed into a hillside clearing.Cows and young steers were grazing there.She heard a tinkle of bells.Below her, down the mountain slope, were other clearings, broken by patches of woods.Fences intervened; and a mile or two down lay the valley, the shining Au Sable, and the peaceful farmhouses.That way also her hereditary enemies were.Not a merciful heart in all that lovely valley.She hesitated: it was only for an instant.She must cross the Slidebrook Valley if possible, and gain the mountain opposite.
She bounded on; she stopped.What was that? From the valley ahead came the cry of a searching hound.All the devils were loose this morning.Every way was closed but one, and that led straight down the mountain to the cluster of houses.Conspicuous among them was a slender white wooden spire.The doe did not know that it was the spire of a Christian chapel.But perhaps she thought that human pity dwelt there, and would be more merciful than the teeth of the hounds.
"The hounds are baying on my track:
O white man! will you send me back?"