Laska ran joyfully and anxiously through the slush that swayed

under her.

Running into the marsh among the familiar scents of roots, marsh

plants, and slime, and the extraneous smell of horse dung, Laska

detected at once a smell that pervaded the whole marsh, the scent

of that strong-smelling bird that always excited her more than

any other. Here and there among the moss and marsh plants this

scent was very strong, but it was impossible to determine in

which direction it grew stronger or fainter. To find the

direction, she had to go farther away from the wind. Not feeling

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the motion of her legs, Laska bounded with a stiff gallop, so

that at each bound she could stop short, to the right, away from

the wind that blew from the east before sunrise, and turned

facing the wind. Sniffing in the air with dilated nostrils, she

felt at once that not their tracks only but they themselves were

here before her, and not one, but many. Laska slackened her

speed. They were here, but where precisely she could not yet

determine. To find the very spot, she began to make a circle,

when suddenly her master's voice drew her off. "Laska! here?" he

asked, pointing her to a different direction. She stopped,

asking him if she had better not go on doing as she had begun.

But he repeated his command in an angry voice, pointing to a spot

covered with water, where there could not be anything. She

obeyed him, pretending she was looking, so as to please him, went

round it, and went back to her former position, and was at once

aware of the scent again. Now when he was not hindering her, she

knew what to do, and without looking at what was under her feet,

and to her vexation stumbling over a high stump into the water,

but righting herself with her strong, supple legs, she began

making the circle which was to make all clear to her. The scent

of them reached her, stronger and stronger, and more and more

defined, and all at once it became perfectly clear to her that

one of them was here, behind this tuft of reeds, five paces in

front of her; she stopped, and her whole body was still and

rigid. On her short legs she could see nothing in front of her,

but by the scent she knew it was sitting not more than five paces

off. She stood still, feeling more and more conscious of it, and

enjoying it in anticipation. Her tail was stretched straight and

tense, and only wagging at the extreme end. Her mouth was

slightly open, her ears raised. One ear had been turned wrong

side out as she ran up, and she breathed heavily but warily, and

still more warily looked round, but more with her eyes than her

head, to her master. He was coming along with the face she knew

so well, though the eyes were always terrible to her. He

stumbled over the stump as he came, and moved, as she thought,

extraordinarily slowly. She thought he came slowly, but he was

running.




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