Part 6 (1/2)
”The snow and stones come down the middle and they'll stop by and by.
Don't talk. Start!”
Deering hesitated. He was big and muscular, but he admitted that on the rocks Stannard was the better man. Moreover, to know he was accountable for Jimmy's plunge had shaken him, and he saw Stannard was very cool.
”Take the flask,” he said and went off at a reckless speed.
VI
DEERING OWNS A DEBT
Jimmy saw a pale star, and veins of snow streaking high shadowy rocks.
He thought when he looked up not long before, the sun was on the mountain, but perhaps it was not. His brain was dull and he was numbed by cold. He s.h.i.+vered and shut his eyes, but after a few minutes he smelt cigar-smoke and looked about again. Although it was getting dark, he saw somebody sitting in the gloom at the bottom of the rocks.
”Where's Deering?” he asked. ”Did I let him go?”
”You did not. Take a drink,” the other replied and pushed a flask into Jimmy's hand.
Jimmy drank, gasped, and tried to get up, but found he could not move.
”Where is Deering?” he insisted.
”I expect he's crossing the glacier with the guides from the hotel,”
said the man, who took the flask from him, and Jimmy knew Stannard's voice.
”Then where am I?”
”You are in the gully. You held on to Deering until he got support for his foot. Then you slipped off the big stone. Something like that, anyhow. Do you feel pain at any particular spot?”
”I don't know if one spot hurts worse than another. All hurt; I doubt if I can get up.”
”You mustn't try,” said Stannard firmly. ”When Deering arrives we'll help you up.”
Jimmy pondered. Since the evening was very cold, he thought it strange Stannard had pulled off his coat. Then he saw somebody had put over him a coat that was not his.
”Why have you given me your clothes?” he asked.
”For one thing, I didn't fall about forty feet.”
”If I had fallen forty feet, I'd have got smashed. It's obvious!”
”Perhaps you hit the side of the gully and rolled down, but it's not important. When one gets a jolt like yours the shock's as bad as the local injury. Are you cold?”
”I'm horribly cold, but although I heard stones not long since I don't think I got hit.”
”The stones run down the middle and I pulled you against the rock.”
”You're a good sort,” Jimmy remarked. ”Deering's a good sort. To know he's not hurt is some relief.”