Kinnaird demurred to this, but Weston, drawing him aside, spoke forcibly, and at length he made a sign of acquiescence.
"Well," he said, "no doubt you"re right. After all, the great thing is to keep the warmth in us. Where are you going?"
"I"ll find a burrow somewhere within call," said Weston quietly.
He was busy for some little time sc.r.a.ping stones out from the hollow beneath the ledge, and then he built a rough wall of the larger ones on two sides of it. After that they got Miss Kinnaird there with some difficulty, and when she and the others had crept into the shelter and wrapped the blankets round them, he turned away and stretched himself out beneath the largest stone he could find. For an hour he lay there smoking, and then put his pipe away. He had not much tobacco, and it occurred to him that he might want the little that remained on the morrow.
In the meanwhile it had grown bitterly cold, and one never feels the cold so much as when a day"s arduous exertion has exhausted the natural heat of the body. Weston was also very hungry, and after beating his numbed hands he thrust them inside his deerskin jacket.
They had probably reached no great height, but summer was only commencing, and it was evidently freezing. Indeed, the nights had been cold enough when he lay well wrapped up in the sheltered valley.
Still, the mist, at least, climbed no higher. The stars were twinkling frostily, and opposite him across the valley a great gray-white rampart ran far up into the dusky blue. He watched it for a while, and then it seemed to grow indistinct and hazy, and when some time afterward he opened his eyes again he saw that there was no mist about the slopes beneath.
Then, as he looked about him, stiff with cold, he noticed that a half-moon had sailed up above the peaks. Its elusive light lay upon the slope, but ledge and stone seemed less distinct than their shadows, which were black as ebony. After that he commenced a struggle with himself, for, numbed as he was, he did not want to move, which is one of the insidious effects of cold. It cramps its victim"s volition as well as his body, and makes him shrink from any attempt at the muscular effort which would make it easier for him to resist it. After all, the endurance of bitter frost is rather a question of moral than physical strength, as every prospector who has crossed the snow-bound alt.i.tudes on the gold trail knows.
He forced himself to get up, and stood still, shivering in every limb, while a bitter wind struck through him as he gathered his resolution together. Then, stripping off his deerskin jacket, he flung it over one arm as he turned toward his companions" shelter. Kinnaird was awake, and his daughter cried out drowsily when Weston stood looking down at him.
"It"s clearing, and I think I could get down," he said. "It would be better if Miss Stirling came with me."
"Yes," said Kinnaird reflectively, "I think she ought to go."
There was, however, a difficulty when Ida rose to her feet, and stood looking about her half awake. She could not speak distinctly, but she seemed bent on staying. Then Kinnaird made a sign to Weston, who quietly slipped his arm within the girl"s and drew her away. She went with him some little distance, too dazed to resist, and then, s.n.a.t.c.hing her arm free, turned upon him white with cold and anger.
"What right have you or Major Kinnaird----" she began, but Weston checked her with a little forceful gesture.
"I, at least, have none at all," he admitted. "In a way, however, I suppose I"m responsible for the safety of the whole party. Could you have done Miss Kinnaird any good by staying?"
Cold and half dazed as she was, a moment"s reflection convinced Ida that she could have done very little beyond helping to keep her companion warm. Weston, who did not wait for her answer, went on:
"Now," he said severely, "do you feel as comfortable as usual, or are you almost too cold to move?"
The girl admitted that the latter was the case, and Weston spread out his hands.
"Well," he said, "it will be at least another six hours before the first sunlight falls on that ledge. Besides, as you may remember, you have had only one meal since early yesterday morning, and I shall be especially fortunate if I can get back here with the Indians by noon.
Major Kinnaird and his daughter must stay, but that doesn"t apply to you. Are you still quite sure you have any cause to be angry with me?"
Ida looked at him with a little flash in her eyes.
"Oh," she said, "I suppose you"re right. Still, is it necessary to make the thing so very plain?"
Weston laughed.
"I just want you to realize that you are in my hands until we reach level ground," he replied. "In the meanwhile I should like you to put on this jacket."
He held out the warm deerhide garment, and the girl flashed a covert glance at him. He stood close by her in loose blue shirt and thin duck trousers, and, as far as she could see by the moonlight, his face was pinched and blue with cold.
"I won"t," she said.
Weston pursed up his face whimsically. He seldom shone where diplomacy was advisable. As a rule, he endeavored to bring about the end he had in view by the most direct means available. In the present instance he felt very compa.s.sionate toward his companion, and recognized only the necessity of getting her back to camp, where there was food and shelter, as soon as possible. Still, it not infrequently happened that his severely simple procedure proved successful.
"Well," he said, "since I don"t intend to wear it we"ll leave it here.
I"ll leave you for a minute or two while I prospect for an easier route than the one by which I came up."
He flung down the jacket, and, striding away, disappeared, while Ida shivered as she glanced about her. She could no longer see the shelter she had left, and she stood alone in the midst of a tremendous desolation of rock and snow, with the valley yawning, a vast dusky pit, beneath her feet. It was appallingly lonely, and she was numb with cold, while, since she was sure that she could not climb back to her companions una.s.sisted, there was only one person on whom she could rely, and that was the packer, who had insisted on her doing what he thought fit. When he came back she had put on the jacket, but he had sense enough to make no sign of having noticed it.
"I can see our way for the next few hundred feet," he said.
The way did not prove an easy one, but they went down, with the gravel sliding beneath them, and now and then a ma.s.s of debris they had loosened rushing past. It occurred to Ida that Weston limped somewhat awkwardly, and once or twice she fancied that she saw his face contract as they scrambled over some shelf of jutting stone; but they pushed on cautiously until they came to a precipitous descent. Ida sat down gasping, when her companion stopped, and gazed with an instinctive shrinking into the gulf below. She could now see the climbing pines, black beneath the moon, and the river shining far away in the midst of them, but they seemed to go straight down. She was very weary, and scarcely felt able to get up again, but in a minute or two Weston held out his hand.
"I fancy that this ridge dies out somewhere to the left. We"ll follow the crest of it until we can get around the end," he said.
They went on very cautiously, though there were times when Ida held her breath and was glad of the firm grasp that her companion laid on her arm. She would not look down into the valley, and when she glanced aside at all it was up at the gleaming snow on the opposite side of it. She seemed to be walking in mid-air, cut off from the comfortable security of the solid earth below, and she found the clamor of falling water that came faintly up to her vaguely rea.s.suring. There had been an almost appalling silence where she had left her companions beneath the frozen peaks, but now one could hear the hoa.r.s.e fret of a rapid on the river, and this was a familiar sound that she welcomed.
Still her weariness gained on her, and her limbs grew heavier, until she could scarcely drag herself along. Weston"s limp became more perceptible too, but he went on with an almost cruel persistency, and forced her forward with his hand on her arm. Sometimes he spoke to her, and, though his voice was strained, his words were cheering and compa.s.sionate.
At length, the descent they skirted became less steep, and scrambling down over a broken slope they presently reached the timber--straggling juniper, and little scattered firs that by and by grew taller and closer together; and, though the peril was over, it was then that their real difficulties commenced. The slope was so steep that they could scarcely keep a footing, and now and then they fell into the trees. There were places where these grew so close together that they could scarcely force a pa.s.sage through, and others where they had gone down before a screaming gale and lay piled in a tangled chaos over which it was almost impossible to flounder. It was dark in the timber, and they could not see the broken ends of the branches that rent their clothing; but they went on somehow, down and down, until, when they reached a clearer s.p.a.ce where the moonlight shone through, Ida sank down limply on a fallen tree. Her skirt was rent to tatters, and one shoe had been torn almost to pieces.
"I simply can"t go on," she said.
Weston leaned against a neighboring fir, looking down at her very compa.s.sionately, though she noticed that his face, on which the moonlight fell, was somewhat drawn and gray.
"Try to think," he said.
"I can"t," replied Ida, "I only want to sleep."
Her companion moved forward and quietly laid his hand on her arm as though to urge her to rise.
"Don"t you understand how it is? Your friends are up yonder in the frost with nothing to eat. I have to take the Indians back for them."
"Then you must go on," the girl said faintly.
Weston shook his head.
"No," he declared, "not without you. That"s out of the question. If there were no other reason, we should have to come back here for you, and I expect that in the daylight we shall find a shorter way up. It will be noon anyway before we get there, and you wouldn"t wish to keep your friends waiting longer."
Ida rose with an effort, and clung heavily to his arm when they crept downward again; but the light grew a little clearer as they proceeded, and the sound of the river rang louder in their ears. Then, in the gray of the morning, they staggered out upon the bank of the river.
Walking, half awake, Ida floundered among the boulders and through a horrible maze of whitened driftwood cast up by the stream. Farther on they fortunately found stretches of smooth sand, and they plodded over these and through little pools, though she afterward fancied that Weston carried her across some of the deeper ones.
The sun was high when they saw the two canoes drawn up on the bank, and a few moments later Mrs. Kinnaird appeared among the firs. She ran toward them, stumbling in a ludicrous fashion amidst the boulders, and then stopped a few yards away and gazed at Ida. The girl could scarcely stand from weariness, and her dress clung about her, wet with the river-water and rent to tatters. There was fear in the little lady"s eyes.
"Where are they?" she asked.
Weston stepped forward limping, and his face was set and gray.
"Up yonder, and quite safe," he said. "Miss Kinnaird has hurt her knee. Nothing serious, but it hurts her to walk. I came for the Indians to help her down again."
He raised his hand restrainingly.
"There is no cause for alarm. Get Miss Stirling something to eat, and leave the rest to me."
He turned away abruptly, and limped past them toward the camp. When Mrs. Kinnaird and Ida reached it, he was hastily getting together provisions, and the Indians were already hewing down two slender firs.