Once he caught the flash of a fiery streak above him--a gleam of sunshine--and it startled him so that he flattened himself down upon the log and did not move for half a minute.
Then he went on.

An ermine squeaked under him.

He heard the swift rustling of a squirrel's feet, and a curious whut-whut-whut that was not at all like any sound his mother had ever made.

He was off the trail.
The log was no longer smooth, and it was leading him upward higher and higher into the tangle of the windfall, and was growing narrower every foot he progressed.

He whined.