Part 38 (1/2)

”No, but he's been about. He cleared away all the snow, and I saw he had been over to the fall.” Amalia turned pale as the shrewd old man's eyes rested on her. ”He came back early, though, for I saw footprints both ways.”

”I hope he comes soon, for we have the good soup to-day, of the kind Mr. 'Arry so well likes.”

But he did not come soon, and it was with much misgiving that Larry set out to search for him. Finding no trails leading anywhere except the twice trodden one to the fall, he naturally turned into the mine and followed along the path, torch in hand, hallooing jovially as he went, but his voice only returned to him, reverberating hollowly.

Then, remembering the ledge where they had last worked, and how he had meant to put in props before cutting away any more, he ran forward, certain of calamity, and found his young friend lying where he had fallen, the blood still oozing from a cut above the temple, where it had clotted.

For a moment Larry stood aghast, thinking him dead, but quickly seeing the fresh blood, he lifted the limp body and bound up the wound, and then Harry opened his eyes and smiled in Larry's face. The big man in his joy could do nothing but storm and scold.

”Didn't I tell ye to do no more here until we'd the props in? I'm thinking you're a fool, and that's what you are. If I didn't tell ye we needed them here, you could have seen it for yourself--and here you've cut away all underneath. What did you do it for? I say!”

Tenderly he gathered Harry in his arms and lifted him from the debris and loosened rock. ”Now! Are you hurt anywhere else? Don't try to stand. Bear on me. I say, bear on me.”

”Oh, put me down and let me walk. I'm not hurt. Just a cut. How long have you been here?”

”Walk! I say! Yes, walk! Put your arm here, across my shoulder, so.

You can walk as well as a week-old baby. You've lost blood enough to kill a man.” So Larry carried him in spite of himself, and laid him in his bunk. There he stood, panting, and looking down on him. ”You're heavier by a few pounds than when I toted you down that trail last fall.”

”This is all foolishness. I could have made it myself--on foot,” said Harry, ungratefully, but he smiled up in the older man's face a compensating smile.

”Oh, yes. You can lie there and grin now. And you'll continue to lie there until I let you up. It's no more lessons with Amalia and no more violin and poetry for you, for one while, young man.”

”Thank G.o.d. It will help me over the time until the trail is open.”

Larry stood staring foolishly on the drawn face and quivering, sensitive lips.

”You're hungry, that's what you are,” he said conclusively.

”Guess I am. I'm wretchedly sorry to make you all this trouble, but--she mustn't come in here--you'll bring me a bite to eat--yes, I'm hungry. That's what ails me.” He drew a grimy hand across his eyes and felt the bandage. ”Why--you've done me up! I must have had quite a cut.”

”I'll wash your face and get your coat off, and your boots, and make you fit to look at, and then--”

”I don't want to see her--or her mother--either. I'm just--I'm a bit faint--I'll eat if--you'll fetch me a bite.”

Quickly Larry removed his outer clothing and mended the fire and then left him carefully wrapped in blankets and settled in his bunk. When he returned, he found him light-headed and moaning and talking incoherently. Only a few words could he understand, and these remained in his memory.

”When I'm dead--when I'm dead, I say.” And then, ”Not yet. I can't tell him yet.--I can't tell him the truth. It's too cruel.” And again the refrain: ”When I'm dead--when I'm dead.” But when Larry bent over him and spoke, Harry looked sanely in his eyes and smiled again.

”Ah, that's good,” he said, sipping the soup. ”I'll be myself again to-morrow, and save you all this trouble. You know I must have accomplished a good deal, to break off that ledge, and the gold fairly leaped out on me as I worked.”

”Did you see it?”

”No, but I knew it--I felt it. Shake my clothes and see if they aren't full of it.”

”Was that what put you in such a frenzy and made a fool of you?”

”Yes--no--no. It--it--wasn't that.”

”You know you were a fool, don't you?”

”If telling me of it makes me know it--yes.”