the cup. He dropped it beside
the empty flask and struggled up.

"Now," he said, "we've got to make that spur where it's safe. Come. It
isn't far; just been up to that place where Banks helped us across; had to
come back for you."

But he was obliged to lift her to her feet and to support her up the
slope. And this, even though the tongue widened above them, threw him
perilously close to the crevasse. Once, twice, the ice broke on the brink
and dropped clinking down, down. It was impossible to make the leap again
to the higher surface they had descended; unhampered, he must have been
physically unfit. Behind them the cloud closed over the Pass and the
mountain top under which the Oriental Limited had stood. His companion no
longer looked back; she moved as mechanically though less certainly than
one who walks in sleep. The fears that possessed him, that she herself had
held so finely in check when they had followed Banks on this glacier, did
not trouble her now. Her indifference to their extremity began to play on
Frederic's unhinged nerves. This white, blue-lipped woman was not the
Beatriz Weatherbee he had known; who had climbed the slope with him that
morning, all exhilaration, spirit, charm; whose example had challenged his
endurance and held his courage to the sticking point.

"Why don't you say something?" he complained. "Have you turned into ice?
Now look where you step, can't you? Deuced fix you got us into, dreaming
there in the clouds, when Lucky Banks had left the spur. Come on, you
bloodless ghost; come, or I'll let you stay where you drop. Nice place to
spend the night in. Almighty God!"

So, upbraiding her when she stumbled, blaming her for their plight,
threatening to leave her if she should fall, and flaying himself on with
renewed panic, he brought her to the top of the double crevasse and the
prospector's crossing. But here, with the levels of the spur before them,
her strength reached low ebb. This time he was not able to rouse her, and
he threw down his alpenstock and took her in his arms, and went slipping
and recovering the remaining steps. He stopped, winded, and stood her on
her feet, but her body sagged limply against him, and the sight of her
still face terrified him. He carried her a little farther, to the shelter
of the crag, and laid her there. Then he dropped to his knees beside her,
and grasping her shoulders shook her, at first slowly, then swiftly, with
the roughness of despair.

"W