Part 29 (1/2)
She ide awake, and further deception was unavailing ”No It's Bill”
”Well, what are you doing, up? Did Harold--do you mean to say you built the fire yourself?”
”That's ain----” The girl snatched aside the curtain and peered into his face
”No such luck Coals were still glowing; all I had to do was put in a piece of firewood But I'm all well otherwise, as far as I can tell
How about you?”
The girl stretched up her arained recuperative powers since I came up here But, Heavens, I've had bad dreams And noant you to tell etting out”
It was a serious question, one to which Bill had already given reat deal,” he answered at last ”I realize you don't know one step of the way down to Bradleyburg, and I can't see the way; but Harold knows it perfectly Of course if we had plenty of food the sensible thing to do would be to wait--till I get back ht But you knoe haven't scarcely any food at all The last of the ot a cup or two of flour and one or two cans Of course there isn't enough to get down to the settlerizzly--after all?”
”Of course Thank God we had hiht to wait till I get back ht have other delays, and perhaps another softening of the crust It will be pretty annoying--traveling on grizzly flesh--and pretty aard to have a blind ood, anyway Maybe I can cut fuel”
The girl was deeply touched It was so characteristic of this man that even in his blindness he wished to ht as possible for her
”I won't let you do a thing,” she told him ”Harold and I can do the work of camp”
”There won't bewill have to be exceedingly sirizzly s we need I don't see why you can't ride on it, too--ely downhill and the crust is perfect We can skiethard, even on snowshoes, we can hts Harold and I can build raging fires--he starting theinia, I won't be hts will be pretty terrible
We'll have to take turns in watching the fire But with blankets around our shoulders, acting as reflectors for the heat, we can get some rest”
”But you are sure Harold knows the way? I couldn't even get as far as the river, and you are blind----”
”Harold knows the way as well as I do I can ee-pole It will be co; the brush is covered with snow The only thing that rerizzly meat Or, better still, since he'll have to take the sled, we can pick it up on the way out It's frozen hard and won't take harm, and it's only a half mile out of our way”
As if the invocation of his naic summons, Harold opened the door and entered He carried Bill's loud-mouthed rifle in the hollow of his arinia cried She was pleased that this sweetheart of hers should have risen so early in an attempt to secure freshto do
”Of course I figured we needed hts of mine They were a yard off that day I shot at the caribou”
”Did you see any gahtly But his ansas apt ”I saw a caribou--about two miles away There didn't see our scarcity of meat, I took that chance Of course, I didn't hit within ten feet of hies I shot--four ti about those same four shots It was incomprehensible that they should have made such an iot his sight back yet, we're going to start down to-lanced once at Bill, but she did not see the world of despair that caht hich she spoke ”You and I will take turns pulling the sled; Bill will hang on to the gee-pole And Bill says you know the way We're going to dash right through--caht,” Harold answered ”What about food?”
”It's only a half- to load the sled with grizzly meat”
It was in Harold's mind that their journey would be far different--down to the Twenty-three Mile cabin and to the Yuga rather than over Grizzly River But for certain very good reasons he kept this knowledge to himself His lips opened to tell them that the wolves and coyotes had already devoured the carcass of the bear; but he caught himself in time It would be somewhat hard to explain how he had learned that fact, in the first place; and in the second, there was a real danger to his plot if this revelation were est that, to conserve what little food they had, they start at once The tie
He nodded The day passed like those preceding,--simpleas was necessary to keep the cabin snug and to provide a supply for the night This was their last day in Clearwater,--and Virginia could hardly accept the truth
How untrue had been her gayety! In all the white lies of her past, all the little pretenses that are as s and streets, she had never been as false to herself as now