accomplice; if
they got safely away with the treasure there could be no revelations
regarding Britt's complicity in its concealment. Britt certainly would
not tell the truth about what had happened to him; the fugitives would
hide their secret and their plunder.

If ever a victim of devilish circumstances had a compelling reason to
play the game, single-handed and to the full limit of desperation, so
Vaniman told himself, he was the man.

He ran from the hovel to the peak of the crag that overlooked the
village of Egypt. He beheld below him a vast expanse of grayish white,
the fleecy sea of the enshrouding vapor. He heard no sounds, he saw no
lights. He had no notion of the hour. Wagg had accommodated him with the
time of day, when he asked for it, just as Wagg loaned him a razor
and doled his rations, persistently and with cunning malice working to
subdue the young man's sense of independence.

But in this crisis all of Vaniman's courage broke from the thralls in
which prison intimidation and a fugitive's caution and despair had bound
it during the months of his disgrace.

No matter how long the others had been on their way! They would be
obliged to go the long route around the hill, and were hampered by the
van; their grim forethought in taking the vehicle to transport their
booty, as if they were sure of succeeding, was another element that
wrought upon Vaniman's temper.

As he was, without coat or hat, he leaped from the crag, as if he were
trying to jump squarely into the middle of the village of Egypt. He
had taken no thought of the steepness of the slope or the dangers of
descent. He slipped and rolled for many rods and a rain of rocks and
earth followed him and beat upon him when he caught a tree and clung
to it. He went on more cautiously after that; blood trickled from the
wounds on his face where the sharp edges of rocks had cut. He thrust
himself through the scrub growth, opening a way with the motions of a
swimmer, his hands scarred by the tangled branches. There were other
steep places that were broken by terraces. When he was down from the
rocky heights on which the vapor did not extend and had entered the
confusing mists, he was obliged to go more slowly still, for he narrowly
missed some nasty falls.

Fierce impatience roweled him. He would not allow himself to weaken his
determination by thinking on what he would do after he arrived at the
Harnden home. He had set that as his goal. Above other c