, who is downright ill. We cannot wait till we're dug out;
that is absolutely certain. I'm not going to run any danger, and if I
find I'm likely to, I'm coming back. I fancy, really," he added,
laughing, "that the most difficult part of the business will be to get
out of this cutting."

The fellows all knew Acton; they knew that when he said things in a
certain tone there was no good arguing. That was why Grim, with a white
face, hurriedly left stoking the blazing fire and retired in dismay to
the guard's van, and why Gus Todd, in an access of angry impatience,
shied the magazine he had been turning over into the middle of the
flames.

Jack Senior said, "This is just like you, Acton. You _will_ fight more
than your share of bargees, but this time I'm going to go one and one
with you. If you like to risk being drowned in those beastly moorland
streams, or to fall into some thirty-feet drift, I'm going to go too.
That is final. _Kismet_, etc.!"

Acton looked narrowly at Senior. "All right, Jack. Get your coat on;
but, honour bright, I'd rather go alone."

"Couldn't do it, old man," said Senior, whilst Worcester nodded
approvingly. "What would Phil Bourne say, if he heard we'd let you melt
away into---- I'm going too."

The passage out of the cutting was not so difficult as Acton had
bargained for; but Worcester and Todd did wonders with the fireman's
shovels and made a lane through the drifts. On the firm ground of the
fell the two found that, though the snow was deep enough in all
conscience, it was not to be compared with the drifts on the line. The
wind now, as they started off, was whipping away the loose top layers of
snow in cold white clouds, which stung the face and ears with their icy
sharpness; but, with caps well down and coats buttoned up to the ears,
the two trudged on. The snow had ceased, but it was plain, by the dark
and lowering sky, that this might only be temporary, and Acton kept up
as smart a pace as he could, heading right for the shoulder of the fell,
a couple of miles away, behind which he might, if he were lucky, see
that moorland farm. The hill ran down into a valley, towards which the
two Amorians hurried, Acton keeping his ears well open for the faintest
murmur of water.

"There's a beck somewhere down here, Jack, but we'll not see it until
we're almost into it. So look out!"

"All serene! I'm on the _qui vive!_" Hardly were the words out of
Senior's mouth than he stumbled headlong for