The recurring dread of a stranger’s footprints keeps the group’s talk charged

Evidence

Of course our circumstances, the likelihood of release, the prospects of snow blocking us in and of our supplies holding out, the sick calves, ”Jim’s” mood, the possible intentions of a man whose footprints we have found and traced for three miles, are all topics that often recur, and few of which can be worn threadbare. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 233

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: Unexplained trail for three miles, never followed further — a bare, unresolved dread that a short story could build entirely around without resolving.
• SEED: An essay on unexplained footprints as a recurring engine of wilderness dread, from Robinson Crusoe to Arctic journals.