e a wry face as he swallowed three of the
pills within. Ross mashed another pill onto the bandage he prepared,
and when the last cumbersome fold was secure Ashe relaxed.

"Let us hope that works," he commented a little bleakly. "Now come here
where I can get my hands on you and let me see your scratch. Animal
bites can be a nasty business."

Bandaged in turn, with the bitterness of the anti-septo pill on his
tongue, Ross helped Ashe limp upstream to the cave. He left the older
man outside while he cleaned up the floor of the cave and then made his
companion as comfortable as he could on a bed of bracken. The fire Ross
had longed for was built. They stripped off their sodden clothing and
hung it to dry. Ross wrapped a bird he had shot in clay and tucked it
under the hot coals to be roasted.

They had surely had bad luck, he thought, but they were now undercover,
had a fire, and food of a sort. His arm ached, sharp pain shooting from
fingers to elbow when he moved it. Though Ashe made no complaint, Ross
gauged that the older man's discomfort was far worse than his own, and
he carefully hid all signs of his own twinges.

They ate the bird, saltless, and with their fingers. Ross savored each
greasy bite, licking his hands clean afterward while Ashe lay back on
the improvised bed, his face gaunt in the half light of the fire.

"We are about five miles from the sea here. There is no way of raising
our base now that Sandy's installation is gone. I'll have to lay up,
since I can't risk any more loss of blood. And you're not too good in
the woods--"

Ross accepted that valuation with a new humbleness. He was only too well
aware that if it had not been for Ashe, he and not the white wolf would
have died down in the valley. Yet a strange shyness kept him from trying
to put his thanks into words. The only kind of amends he could make for
the other's hurt was to provide hands, feet, and strength for the man
who did know what to do and how to do it.

"We'll have to hunt--" he ventured.

"Deer," Ashe caught him up. "But the marsh at the mouth of this stream
provides a better hunting ground than inland. If the wolf laired here
very long, she has already frightened away any large game. It isn't the
matter of food which bothers me----"

"It is being tied up here," Ross filled in for him with some daring.
"But look here, I'll take orders. This is your territory, and I'm green
at the game. You tell me what to do, and I'll do it t