t
and quivering from starvation and over-exertion that neither of us could
hold his gun steady. Again and again we fired and reloaded, the stupid
beasts standing all unconcerned at the report of our guns, though we
repeatedly hit the nearer members of their band. With muskets we could
surely have soon brought down one or more, if only from their loss of
blood. But the tiny wound made by a rifle ball is of little effect
unless a vital part is pierced.

In the end we must have succeeded by a chance shot. But while we were
yet blazing away as fast as we could load and fire, one of the herd
chanced to drift around to where a flaw in the wind bore our scent to
his sensitive nostrils. In an instant he had alarmed the herd, and all
raced off, snorting with fear, the wounded running no less swiftly than
their fellows. To follow such a stampede was useless. Once started, the
animals would run for hours.

We staggered to our feet and gazed after the fleeing herd in utter
despair.

"It is the end!" I groaned--"the end! We have lost our last chance!"

"We are outspent!" murmured my companion. "We can do no more! My poor
lads! faithful ever to their rash leader! To think that I have led them
into this death-trap!"

"They are men!" I cried in bitter anger. "What is death to men?--even
this hideous agony of hunger? We can bear that. But to die now--my
God!--that I should die before seeing her!--my Alisanda!"

"No! not now!" He turned upon me with a flicker of feverish resolve in
his hollow, bloodshot eyes. "Not now, not here! We are not cowards to
give up the struggle while we can yet drag ourselves along."

"As well here as a few paces farther on," I muttered.

He dragged at my arm to rouse me from the black stupor of mind and body
into which I was fast sinking. "John! think of her!" he cried. "You'll
not give up! Keep fighting, for her sake, keep fighting, lad!"

"For her sake," I whispered. I caught at his clutching hand and sought
to rally from that benumbing stupor. "For her sake!"

"And I--for the sake of those--who await the return of husband and
father!" he panted. "Come! We'll fight--to the last!"

Death alone might conquer that indomitable spirit! We staggered on
through the bleak wild, our eyes inflamed and half blinded by the snow,
peering about in vain search for game. We did not turn back. To return
to camp empty-handed would have been the bitterest of mockeries,
supposing we could have found strength to go