About midday
Granger pressed on more hurriedly , for he feared that , if he dropped too far behind , the snow would cover up all traces of the man , and so he would escape him . Sometimes he fancied that he could hear him going on ahead , for every now and then a twig would snap . In the heat of his pursuit he took no account of direction . About midday he halted ; of late all sounds had grown rarer and the snow had thickened , causing even his own footprints to appear blurred a few seconds after they had been made . Of the trail which he followed he could see nothing himself , trusting to his huskies ' sense of smell to lead him aright . Soon he grew strangely nervous , for he thought that he heard the crunch of snowshoes coming up behind . He persuaded himself that it was imagination , until his dogs , swinging round in a half-circle , began to travel back in a direction parallel to the route they had already traversed .