much to eat
at that house, and they'll want the things," he said.

There was another struggle with the Cayuse, which appeared reluctant to
face a treacherous ascent whose slope was somewhat steeper than the
pitch of an average roof, but once more Alton conquered, and they
dragged the beasts up, and then floundered on doggedly beside them,
seeing nothing but a dim pine or two through the snow. Now and then
there was a rattle and a rush beneath them, followed by a faint splash,
and Seaforth shivered a little, knowing that the shingle they dislodged
had plunged into a lonely lake lying far below. Still Alton said
nothing, but floundered on, apparently as cheerfully as though he would
be well paid for the risk he ran, until he crawled down into the
sliding whiteness, when a hide strip burst and some of Townshead's
packages were scattered about the face of a precipitous declivity.

Seaforth held his breath a moment as, gripping the bridle of a
trembling beast, he watched him until the dim moving figure sank into
the snow. He could hear the wash of the unfrozen lake, and knew there
was no foothold on the slippery rock which sloped almost sheer to it
through the darkness close beneath. Then a voice came up, "Wasn't
there a dry goods package of some kind, Charley?"

"There was," shouted Seaforth. "But come up with what you've got, and
leave it."

A faint laugh answered him, and through the moaning of the pines he
caught the words, "If it's not over the edge here, I'm going to get the
thing."

Seaforth said nothing further. He knew his comrade too well, and could
picture him clinging by hand and heel as he crawled along the brink of
the declivity with the lake below, and gasped from relief when once
more a dim whitened object lurched up out of the snow.

"Got them all," said Alton cheerfully. "That last one was just on the
edge, and it took some thinking before I could get at it. Still, I
guessed it was some kind of dress stuff for the girl, and if we lost it
it might be a long while before she got another."

They relashed the packages and went on again, floundering through
steadily deepening snow, until once more the roar of water met them as
they dipped into a hollow. It grew louder rapidly, and presently Alton
pulled the Cayuse up on the brink of a river. It came down frothing
out of a haze of sliding snow, tumbling with a hoarse growl about the
great dim boulders, whirled and tossed in a white confusion dow