"Quite well, and he is so clear to me that the other animals tell me I must soon be going to join his band of happy creatures."
"What do you mean by that?" I asked.
"That all the animals that ever lived in these woods are here still, though we do not see them."
"Can that be possible! Is this wonderful forest to be your deer heaven, lovely doe?"
"I hope so. I should like to keep near my masters and I feel that I will, for that wolf cub with the Highlander is one who once lived back of the mountain."
"You recognise him?"
"Yes, for he hunted me cruelly. He was with his mother, the fiercest old wolf witch of this district. It was one day on the ice. I was crossing the lake to go home. Something told me they were coming. I was as fleet as the wind in those days, but they swept close to me, one on each side. I felt their hot breath——"
She paused an instant and I shuddered. I could see her in my mind's eye bounding up the frozen lake in her graceful manner, her heart pounding, her strength failing, the two fierce creatures about to leap on her and tear her to pieces.
"Do you know," she said quietly, "that just when I was about to sink to the ice something very strange happened."
"What was it?" I asked eagerly.