efore
the fire again.
"Jacqueline," I said, "it is easier to go on than to turn back now."
She watched me like a lip-reader. "Yes, Paul; let us go on," she
answered.
So we went on. But our journey was to be very different now. There
was no possibility of taking much baggage with us. We took a few
things out of our suit-cases and disposed them about us as best they
could.
The heavy sleeping-bags would have made our progress, encumbered as we
were with our fur coats, too slow; but I had hopes that we would reach
the trappers' huts that afternoon, and so decided to discard them in
favour of the fur-lined sleigh-rug, which would, at least, keep
Jacqueline warm.
So we strapped on our snow-shoes, and I made a pack and put three days'
supplies of food in it and fastened it on my shoulders, securing it
with two straps from the harness. I rolled the rug into a bundle and
tied it below the pack; and thus equipped, we left the dead beasts and
the useless sleigh behind us for Leroux's satisfaction, and set out
briskly upon our march.
It is a strange thing, but no sooner had I passed out of sight of the
sleigh than, weighted though I was, I felt my spirits rising rapidly.
The freedom of movement and the exhilarating air gave my mind a new
sense of liberty, and Jacqueline, who had been watching me anxiously,
seeing the gloom disappear from my face, tried, first to tempt me to
mirth, and then to match me in it. Sometimes we would run a little
way, and then we would fall back into our steady, ambling plod once
more.
The cold was less intense, but, looking at the sky, which was heavily
overcast, I knew that the rise in temperature betokened the advent of a
heavy fall of snow, probably before night.
We were merrier than at any previous time, having by tacit agreement
resolved to put our troubles behind us. Jacqueline laughed gaily at my
clumsy attempts to avoid tripping myself upon my snow-shoes.
We stopped to look at the trees and the traces of deer-croppings upon
the bark. Sometimes we took to the river-bed, and then again we paced
among the trees, which were now becoming so sparsely scattered that the
trail was hardly discernible. This caused me no concern, however, for
I believed that when we reached the huts, we should be able to obtain
certain information as to the remainder of our course.
And though I knew that Leroux was behind, and that he would press
forward the more impetuously when he discover
|