Part 37 (2/2)

After a time Deering stopped and looked about. The stones on the river bank were large and sharp, the night was dark, and his load embarra.s.sed him. In the distance, he saw a small red fire; a dim light marked the post office, and the reflections from the blast-lamp quivered behind the trees. Deering got his breath and braced up.

Born in the bush, he had known poverty and stern physical toil. He was a good mountaineer, but he admitted that his two hundred pounds was something of a load to carry across icy rocks. Then he had, for the most part, lived extravagantly at fas.h.i.+onable hotels, and his big muscles were soft; but this was not all. The distant lights stood for human society and civilization. Deering was very human and fought against an atavistic shrinking from the dark and loneliness. Moreover, he knew the wilds. For all that, he meant to conquer his shrinking.

He admitted that he was perhaps a romantic sentimentalist and his adventure did not harmonize with his occupation. Sometimes, however, one was not logical and not long since he would have plunged down the rocks but for Jimmy's pluck. Besides he saw Stannard had used him to entangle the lad. Deering had his rude code, but Stannard had none. He was cold and calculating, and Deering thought he meant to carry out the plan he tried before when he sent Jimmy over the neck. Although Deering did not like the job, he meant to baffle him.

In the meantime, all was quiet but for the turmoil of the river a few yards off. Dark pines occupied the narrow level belt by the track, and on the other side vague blurred rocks went up. Thin mist drifted about, and the line, running downhill, melted into the gloom. The trooper was at the station and Deering imagined n.o.body was about.

”The stones are sharp and slippery,” he said. ”We'll take the track and push on for the section-hut.”

They got on the line, but did not progress fast. The gravel ballast was large and hurt their feet; the ties were not evenly s.p.a.ced. Sometimes Deering stepped on the timber and sometimes on the loose stones. Then numerous ravines pierced the rocks, and although the construction gangs had begun to fill up the chasms, for the most part wooden trestles spanned the gaps. To cross an open-work trestle in the dark is awkward, and when Deering balanced on a narrow tie and looked for the next, he sweated and breathed hard. On one trestle he stopped. Sixty feet below him, he saw the foam of an angry torrent; the next tie was some distance off, and the wood sparkled with frost.

In a sense, his adventure was ridiculous. When he used the railroad he went on board a first-cla.s.s car and checked his baggage. Now he stumbled over the ballast and carried on his back all he could not go without. In the meantime, however, he must cross the trestle, and he trusted his luck and jumped.

He got across and after three or four hours they reached the section-shack. Graham was in bed, but he got up and told them all they wanted to know. Three policemen with an Indian and a pack-horse had come down the track and Graham imagined they had found the entrance to Jimmy's valley. He reckoned they would send back the Indian and the horse when they took the rocks, but the fellow had not yet returned.

Peter was puzzled about the Indian.

”They didn't hire him up at the station,” he remarked. ”Looks as if they'd fixed it for him to meet them.”

”It looks as if they'd made their plans and their plans were pretty good,” said Deering. ”However, since they've got a loaded horse, they can't shove on fast. How long was the other outfit in front?”

Graham told him and for a few moments Deering pondered. Then he said, ”It's awkward! Stannard knows where Jimmy is, and he'll hit up the pace.

I reckon the police don't know and must look for his tracks. If we hustle, we'll run up against the gang.”

The difficulty was obvious and Peter frowned.

”We might get by their camp in the dark. We'd see the fire.”

”I doubt,” Deering rejoined. ”If the boys make a fire, they'll make it where the light is hid. They don't want to put Jimmy wise.”

”Well?” said Peter. ”What is your plan?”

Deering laughed, a noisy laugh, for now he had started, his hesitation vanished.

”We'll trust our luck and shove ahead. In the morning we'll get up the rocks and look about. I've brought my gla.s.ses. Let's get going.”

Graham gave them directions and when they climbed a steep hill they found the valley. The ground was broken and in places covered by tangled brush, but they made progress and at daybreak labored across the snow to the top of a spur. Deering sat on his pack and used his prismatic gla.s.ses.

Gray cloud floated about the mountain slopes, but the high peaks were sharp and began to s.h.i.+ne in the rising sun. Some were rose-pink and some were yellow; the hollows between their broken tops were gray and blue. A map of the mountains occupied a wall of the hotel rotunda, and Deering, using his gla.s.ses, imagined it roughly accurate.

”I expect the blue gap is the head of the valley,” he remarked and when Peter nodded resumed: ”We'll allow Stannard joined Jimmy ahead of the police and took him along. We have got to hit their line and this is not as hard as it looks. They can't steer for the shoulder of the big peak; the rocks won't go and I see an ugly ice-fall on the glacier. I reckon I'd head back, obliquely, for the _col_, up the long _arrete_.”

”I don't use no _habitant_ French,” Peter observed.

”Oh, well. Our clubmen have begun to use the tourists' talk,” said Deering and gave Peter the gla.s.ses. ”Anyway, you see the ridge that runs up to the neck?”

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