body of their comrade. Peace-Renown put her hand to her heart and averted her eyes.
The Tukholian youths improvished a stretcher out of broken branches and twigs, placed the body upon it and also dragged the beastly carcass after them. An onerous silence gripped the company of huntsmen. A great puddle of blood glistened moistly in the sunlight reminding all that only a few minutes before there had stood a living human being hale with the vigor of life and filled with ambitious hopes for the future, who now was but a formless mass of bloody flesh.
The greater part of their desire to continue the hunt had left the boyars. “To blazes with those cursed bears,” said some. “Let them live and die here, for all we care! Why should we risk our lives for them?”
But Tuhar Wolf and particularly Peace-Renown and Maxim insisted upon finishing the task they had begun. Finally the boyars agreed but none seemed at all anxious to return to their posts.
“Permit me, gentlemen,” spoke up Maxim, “a few words before we start again. Since my friends, the Tukholian youths, are guarding the entrance to the pass they will not allow any beast to leave or enter. Therefore it will not be necessary for us to keep at any great distance from each other. Also I think it would be best to divide ourselves into two separate companies and skirt along the edge of the gorge. In that way we’ll drive all the animals into the center and with the aid of the Tukholian youths, in a more closely knit line, we’ll surround the beasts and shoot them all down at once.”
“Yes, yes, that’s best!” cried some of the boyars without noticing the sardonic smile which momentarily played about Maxim’s lips. The company then divided itself into two groups, one led by Tuhar Wolf and the other by Maxim. Peace-Renown, without being able to explain to herself just why she made the choice, joined the second group under
14
