limped, accepted his statement. He sat down among the stones with an
expressionless face, and Charly decided that it was Wyllard's part to
try to pick up the trail.

"You could beat me every time at trailing or shooting when we went
ashore on the American side, and I'm not sorry to let it go at that
now," he said.

Wyllard smiled very grimly, "And I've carried this rifle a week on top
of my other load. You can't shoot when you're dead played out."

Then they called in the Indian and left it to him, and saying nothing
he gravely pointed to Wyllard.

Charly grinned for the first time in several days.

"Well," he said, "in this case I guess I've no objections to let it be
as he suggests."

Wyllard, who said nothing further, took up the rifle and strode very
wearily out of camp. There was, he fancied, scarcely an hour's
daylight left, and already the dimness seemed a little more marked down
in the hollow. He, however, found the slot again, and as there was a
wall of rock on one side of him up which he did not think a beast of
any kind could scramble he pushed on up stream beside the ice. There
was nothing except this to guide him, but he was a little surprised to
feel that his perceptions which had been dull and dazed the last few
days were growing clearer. He noticed the different sounds the river
made, and picked out the sharp crackle of ice among the stones, though
he had hitherto only been conscious of a hoarse, pulsating roar. The
rocks also took distinctive shapes instead of looming in blurred masses
before his heavy eyes, and he found himself gazing with strained
attention into each strip of deeper shadow. Still, though he walked
cautiously, there was no sign of any life in the ravine. He was
horribly weary, and now and then he set his lips as he stumbled noisily
among the stones, but he pushed on beside the water while the deep
hollow grew dimmer and more shadowy.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE UNEXPECTED.

By and bye Wyllard felt a troublesome dizziness creeping over him, and
he sat down upon a boulder with the rifle across his knees. He had
eaten very little during the last few days, which had been spent in
arduous exertion, and now the leaden weariness which he had fought
against since morning threatened to overcome him. In addition to this,
he was oppressed by a black dejection, which, though his mind had never
been clearer, reacted upon his failing physical powers, for it was now
unpleasan