"As I have said, it was still eight days before Christmas. No, two days only. Christmas was on a Sunday that year, and it is Friday night that I speak of. I am not likely to forget it, nor the following night either. Michel used to visit the Duval place every evening at eight o’clock, returning always before midnight and going across the river to his home on the Island. The road was marked, as usual, by _balises_, for the path was always being effaced by the drifting snow. _Mon Dieu_! How the wind blew across the river, and how it carried the snow along--the snow that covered everything like a winding-sheet! Yes, and it would have covered Michel Gamache that night if my brother Ovide had had his way. "Ah, he was a fox, that Ovide. He did not wish to meet Michel face to face, but to change the _balises_ so that the road led direct to an air-hole, where the icy water ran along black and silent--that was not at all dangerous for him. If Michel should fall in the water, that was not his affair; but if he should try to climb out again, he would be there to push him down under the ice. Yes, under the ice, to drift, to roll along with the stream, to have his hair, his eyes, his ears, filled with slime, to have his bones picked by the eels, to be buried in a heap of sand and seaweed on some lonely shore--that would be a punishment indeed for Michel Gamache, liar, traitor, cursed sorcerer. "So my brother Ovide hid himself behind one of the branches and waited. It was nearly midnight; the night was very cold; and Ovide was not at all comfortable as he crouched behind the little tree. But he warmed himself now and then from a flask of excellent brandy; soon his spirits rose, and he was full of courage. Presently he heard a light patter as of some one running with moccasins on his feet; and immediately there appeared, not a man, but a gigantic wolf, that stopped at the open water, and began to howl as though scenting danger. Then he took a leap into the air, flying over an abyss of twenty feet, lit on the ice on the other side, and disappeared in the distance, still howling frightfully. "My brother Ovide escaped from that place as fast as possible, believing himself chased by the devil; and when he staggered into the house, his face pale as the snow, his jaw hanging, his eyes bloodshot and staring, he was not a courageous object, I assure you. "’What is the matter, Ovide,’ said I, much frightened. "’Lock the door, Celestine; it is following me. Quick, it is there.’ "’What is it, you fool?’ said I. "’The _loup garou_, Celestine! Ah! Ah! There it is at the window! _Mon Dieu_! _Mon Dieu_!’