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
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.