ls
at home, burrowing away to make a hole to get to the surface, and as
fast as I got the sand down from above me I kept on kicking it out with
my feet, and it slid away far below with a dull, hissing sound."

"Yes, sir, I heard it; but that was this morning. How did you get on in
the night, after you began to breathe again? You couldn't ha' been
buried long, or you'd ha' been quite smothered."

"Of course," said Bracy rather vacantly--"in the night?"

"Yes; didn't you hear me hollering?"

"No."

"When you were gone all in a moment I thought you'd slipped and gone
sliding down like them chaps do the tobogganing, sir."

"You did call to me, then?"

"Call, sir? I expect that made me so hoarse this morning."

"I did not hear you till I whistled and you answered, not long ago."

"Why, I whistled too, sir, lots o' times, and nigh went mad with
thinking about you."

"Thank you, Gedge," said Bracy quietly, and he held out his hand and
gripped his companion's warmly. "I give you a great deal of trouble."

"Trouble, sir? Hark at you! That ain't trouble. But after you got out
of the snow?"

"After I got out of the snow?"

"Yus, sir; you was there all night."

"Was I? Yes, I suppose so. I must have been. But I don't know much.
It was all darkness and snow, and--oh yes, I remember now! I did not
dare to move much, because whenever I did stir I began to glide down as
if I were going on for ever."

"But don't you remember, sir, any more than that?"

"No," said Bracy, speaking with greater animation now. "As I told you,
I must have been stunned by my terrible fall, and that saved me from a
time of agony that would have driven me mad. As soon as it was light I
must have begun moving in a mechanical way to try and escape from that
terrible death-trap: but all that has been dream-like, and--and I feel
as if I were still in a kind of nightmare. I am quite faint, too, and
giddy with pain. Yes, I must lie down here in the sunshine for a bit.
Don't let me sleep long if I drop off."

"No, sir; I won't, sir," replied Gedge, as Bracy sank to his elbow and
then subsided with a restful sigh, lying prone upon the snow.

"He's fainted! No, he ain't; he's going right off to sleep. Not let
him sleep long? Yes, I will; I must, poor chap! It's knocked half the
sense out of him, just when he was done up, too. Not sleep? Why,
that's the doctor as'll pull him round. All right, sir; you're going to
have my sheep