tein's face was not pleasant to see. All
the complaisancy of the egotist who has long and successfully shaped lives
to his own ends was withdrawn; it left exposed the ugly inner side of the
man. The trail was becoming soft; the damp of the Chinook began to envelop
them; already the advancing film stretched like a curtain over the sun,
and the three figures that had seemed parts of a shaken tapestry
disappeared. Then, presently, Banks' voice, muffled like a voice under a
blanket, rose through the pall. And Frederic stopped to put his hand to
his mouth. "All right! Coming!" he answered, but the shout rebounded as
though it had struck a sounding board.

After another plodding silence, the prospector's hail reached them again.
It seemed farther off, and this time Morganstein did not respond. He
stopped, however, and the woman beside him waited in expectation.
"Suppose," he said slowly, "we are lost on this mountain to-night. Make a
difference to-morrow--wouldn't it?--whether you would marry me or not."

The color rushed to her face and went; her breast rose and fell in deep,
quick breaths, but she met his look fearlessly, lifting herself with the
swaying movement from the balls of her feet that made her suddenly taller.
"No." And her tone, the way in which she said it, must have stung even his
small soul; then she added: "You are more brutal than I thought."

She turned after that and herself sent the belated response to Banks. But
though she repeated the call twice, making a trumpet of her hands and with
all the power of her voice, his hail did not reach them again. She started
swiftly down. It was beginning to snow.

Frederic had nothing more to say. He moved on with her. It was as though
each tried to out-travel the other, still they could not make up that
delay. The snow fell in big, soft flakes that blurred the tracks they
followed; soon they were completely blotted out, and though he strained
his eyes continually, watching for the cleaver of rock they had climbed
that morning, the landmark never appeared. Finally, at the same instant,
they both stopped, listening. On the silence broke innumerable small
sounds like many little hurrying feet. The mountain trembled slightly.
"God Almighty!" he cried thickly. Then came the closer rush of a
considerable body, not unlike sheep passing in a fog, and panic seized
him. "We've got to keep on top," he shouted and, grasping her arm, he
swung her around and began to run back up