{"product_id":"2940016297231","title":"The Purple Flame","description":"Marian Norton started, took one step backward, then stood staring.\u003cbr\u003eStartled by this sudden action, the spotted reindeer behind her lunged\u003cbr\u003ebackward to blunder into the brown one that followed him, and this one\u003cbr\u003ewas in turn thrown against a white one that followed the two. This set\u003cbr\u003eall three of them into such a general mix-up that it was a full minute\u003cbr\u003ebefore the girl could get them quieted and could again allow her eyes to\u003cbr\u003eseek the object of her alarm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs she stood there her pulse quickened, her cheeks flushed and she felt\u003cbr\u003ean all but irresistible desire to turn and flee. Yet she held her ground.\u003cbr\u003eHad she seen a flash of purple flame? She had thought so. It had appeared\u003cbr\u003eto shoot out from the side of the dark bulk that lay just before her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Might have been my nerves,” she told herself. “Perhaps my eyes are\u003cbr\u003eseeing things. T’wouldn’t be strange. I came a long way to-day.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe _had_ come a long way over the Arctic tundra that day. Starting but\u003cbr\u003etwo mornings before from her reindeer herd, close to a hundred miles from\u003cbr\u003eNome, Alaska, she had covered fully two-thirds of that distance in two\u003cbr\u003edays.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer way had lead over low hills, across streams whose waters ran clear\u003cbr\u003eand cold toward the sea, down broad stretches of tundra whose soft mosses\u003cbr\u003ehad oozed moisture at her every step. Here a young widgeon duck, ready to\u003cbr\u003ebegin his southward flight—for this was the Arctic’s autumn time—had\u003cbr\u003estretched his long neck to stare at her. Here a mother white fox had\u003cbr\u003eyap-yaped at her, insolently and unafraid. Here she had paused to pick a\u003cbr\u003ehandful of pink salmon berries or to admire a particularly brilliant\u003cbr\u003earray of wild flowers, which, but for her passing, might have been “Born\u003cbr\u003eto blush unseen and waste their fragrance on the desert air.” Yet always\u003cbr\u003ewith the three reindeers at her heels, she had pressed onward toward\u003cbr\u003eNome, the port and metropolis of all that vast north country.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47101308371184,"sku":"2940016297231","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940016297231_p0.jpg?v=1763640131","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940016297231","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}