eir faces had already grown gaunt and haggard, and each scanty meal
had been further cut down to the smallest portion which would keep life
and power of movement within them. Still, though the weight of it
hampered him almost intolerably, Wyllard clung to the one rifle that
they had saved from the disaster at the landing and a dozen cartridges.
This was a folly which he and Charly had once virulent words about.

At length they came one evening to a river which flowed across their
path, and lay down beside it, feeling that the end was not far away.
Except in the eddies and shallows, the ice had broken up, and the
stream swirled by between in raging flood, thick with heavy masses
which it had brought down from its higher reaches. They crashed upon
the gleaming spurs that here and there projected from the half-thawn
fringe, and smashed with a harsh crackling among the boulders, and
there was no doubt as to what would befall the stoutest swimmer who
might attempt the passage. So far as Wyllard afterwards remembered,
none of them said anything when they lay down among the wet stones, but
with the first of the daylight they started up stream. The river was
not a large one, and it seemed just possible that they might find a
means of crossing higher up, though they afterwards admitted that this
was a good deal more than they expected.

During the afternoon the ground rose sharply, and the stream flowed out
of a deep ravine which they followed. The rocks, as far as Wyllard
could remember, were of volcanic origin, and some of them had crumbled
into heaps of ragged debris. The slope of the ravine became a talus it
was almost impossible to scramble along, and they were forced back upon
the boulders and the half-thawn ice in the slacker pools.

Still, they made some progress, and when evening drew near found a
little clearer space between rock and river. The Indian had in the
meanwhile wrenched his foot or knee, and when at length they stopped to
make camp among the rocks it was some little time before he overtook
them. Then he said that he had found the slot of some animal which he
fancied had gone up the ravine. What the beast was he did not seem to
know, but he assured them that it was, at least, large enough to eat,
and that appeared to be of the most importance then. He would not,
however, take the rifle. Nothing would compel him to drag himself
another rod that night, he said, and the others, who had noticed how he