A sudden, clattering roar had come from
beneath the hood, a clanking jangle which told him that his eyes had
sought the oil gauge too late,--the shattering, agonizing cacophony of
a broken connecting rod, the inevitable result of a missing oil supply
and its consequent burnt bearing. Hopelessly, dejectedly Barry shut
off the engine and pulled to one side of the road,--through sheer force
of habit. In his heart he knew that there could be no remedy for the
clattering remonstrance of the broken rod, that the road was his
without question, that it was beyond hope to look for aid up here where
all the world was pines and precipices and driven snow, that he must go
on, fighting against heavier odds than ever. And as he realized the
inevitable, his dull, tired eyes saw from the distance another, a
greater enemy creeping toward him over the hills and ice gorges,
through the valleys and along the sheer walls of granite. The last,
ruddy rim of a dying sun was just disappearing over Mount Taluchen.

CHAPTER II

Hazard Pass had held true to its name. There were yet nearly four
miles to go before the summit of nearly twelve thousand feet elevation
could be reached and the downward trip of fourteen miles to the nearest
settlement made. And that meant--

Houston steadied himself and sought to figure just what it did mean.
The sun was gone now, leaving grayness and blackness behind,
accentuated by the single strip of gleaming scarlet which flashed
across the sky above the brim of Mount Taluchen, the last vestige of
daylight. The wind was growing shriller and sharper, as though it had
waited only for the sinking of the sun to loose the ferocity which too
long had been imprisoned. Darkness came, suddenly, seeming to sweep up
from the valleys toward the peaks, and with it more snow. Barry
accepted the inevitable. He must go on--and that as swiftly as his
crippled machine, the darkness and the twisting, snow-laden,
treacherous road would permit.

Once more at the wheel, he snapped on the lights and huddled low, to
avail himself of every possible bit of warmth from the clanking,
discordant engine. Slowly the journey began, the machine laboring and
thundering with its added handicap of a broken rod and the consequent
lost power of one cylinder. Literally inch by inch it dragged itself
up the heavier grades, puffing and gasping and clanking, the rattling
rod threatening at every moment to tear out its very vitals. The