d
filled the large dipper for his horse. Now he went back and washed
that utensil carefully, and hung it beside the door.

The next trail he followed led by a bare and more forbidding route to
the place where the big man had rescued him, and he knew it must be
the one by which he had come. A sense of what had happened came over
him terrifyingly, and he shrank from the abyss, his body quivering and
his head reeling. He would not look down into the blue depth, knowing
that if he did so, by that way his sanity would leave him, but he
crawled cautiously around the projecting cliff and wandered down the
stony trail. Now and again he called, "Whoopee! Whoopee!" but only his
own voice came back to him many times repeated.

Again and again he called and listened, "Whoopee! Whoopee!" and was
regretful at the thought that he did not even know the name of the man
who had saved him. Could he also save the others? The wild trail drew
him and fascinated him. Each day he followed a little farther, and
morning and evening he called his lonely cry, "Whoopee! Whoopee!" and
still was answered by the echo in diminuendo of his own voice. He
tried to resist the lure of that narrow, sun-baked, and stony descent,
which he felt led to the nethermost hell of hunger and burning thirst,
but always it seemed to him as if a cry came up for help, and if it
were not that he knew himself bound by a promise, he would have taken
his horse and returned to the horror below.

Each evening he reasoned with himself, and repeated the big man's
words for reassurance: "I'll fetch them, do you hear? I'll fetch
them," and again: "I'm the mountain. Any one I don't want here I pack
off down the trail." Perhaps he had taken them off to Higgins' Camp
instead of bringing them back with him--what then? Harry King bowed
his head at the thought. Then he understood the lure of the trail.
What then? Why, then--he would follow--follow--follow--until he found
again the woman for whom he had dared the unknown and to whom he had
given all but a few drops of water that were needed to keep him alive
long enough to find more for her. He would follow her back into that
hell below the heights. But how long should he wait? How long should
he trust the man to whom he had given his promise?

He decided to wait a reasonable time, long enough to allow for the big
man's going, and slow returning--long enough indeed for them to use up
all the provisions he had packed down to them, and