vil snake in the shape of that red-bearded ruffian."

"That was the one the others called Beardy. But don't you talk so much:
your voice is growing worse."

"Can't help it, old fellow. I must talk. I'm so excited. Feel the
cold?"

"Oh, no. I'm quite warm with the glow which comes up through the sheet.
A good idea, that was, of bringing it on your sledge."

"Yes, but it's heavy. I say, though, what an experience this is, here
in the pitchy darkness. Ah! Look out!"

The pistols clicked again, for from somewhere close at hand there was a
faint rustling sound, followed by a heavy thud, as if some one had
stumbled and fallen in the snow.

The pair listened breathlessly in the black darkness, straining their
eyes in the direction from whence the sound had come; but all was
perfectly still.

They listened again minute after minute, and there was a dull throbbing
sound which vibrated through them; but it was only the heavy beating of
their own hearts.

Then they both started violently, for there was another dull heavy thud,
and some one hissed as if drawing in his breath to suppress the strong
desire to utter a cry of pain.

It was horrible in that intense blackness to crouch there with pistols
held ready directed towards the spot where whoever it was had fallen,
for there could be no doubt whatever. There had been the fall, not many
yards from where they knelt, and they listened vainly for the rustling
that must accompany the attempt to get up again.

At last the faint rustling came, and the temptation to fire was almost
too strong to be resisted. But they mastered it, and waited, both
determined and strung up with the desire to mete out punishment to the
cowardly miscreants who sought for their own gain to destroy their
fellow-creatures.

"Don't fire till you are sure it is they," each of the two young men
thought. "It is impossible to take aim in this darkness."

And they waited till the rustling ended in a sort of whisper.

Once more all was silent, and the suspense grew maddening, as they
waited minutes which seemed like hours.

But the enemy was evidently astir, for there was another whisper, and
another--strange warning secretive whispers--and a sigh as of one in
pain.

At this one of the listeners thrust out a hand, and the other joined in
an earnest grip, which told of mutual trust and determination to stand
by each other to the death, making them feel that the terrible emergency
had made