pression. The fires of youth were not burning
in his veins, and his vitality had been reduced at least one half.

Now, that terrible hunger, although he had striven to fight it,
assailed him once more, and his will weakened slowly. What were those
tales Tayoga had been telling about men going a week or ten days
without food? They were clearly incredible. He had been less than two
days without it, and his tortures were those of a man at the stake.

Willet's eyes, from natural keenness and long training, were able to
pierce the dusk and he showed the way, steep and slippery though it
was, with infallible certainty. They were on a lower slope, where by
some freak of the weather there was snow instead of slush, when he
bent down and examined the path with critical and anxious eyes. Robert
and Tayoga waited in silence, until the hunter straightened up again.
Then he said:

"A war party has gone down the pass ahead of us. There were about
twenty men in it, and it's not more than two hours beyond us. Whether
it's there to cut us off, or has moved by mere chance, I don't know,
but the effect is just the same. If we keep on we'll run into it."

"Suppose we try the ascent and get out over the ridges," said Robert.

Willet looked up at the steep and lofty slopes on either side.

"It's tremendously bad footing," he replied, "and will take heavy toll
of our strength, but I see no other way. It would be foolish for us to
go on and walk straight into the hands of our enemies. What say you,
Tayoga?"

"There is but a single choice and that a desperate one. We must try
the summits."

They delayed no longer, and, Willet still leading, began the frightful
climb, choosing the westward cliff which towered above them a
full four hundred feet, and, like the one that faced it, almost
precipitous. Luckily many evergreens grew along the slope and using
them as supports they toiled slowly upward. Now and then, in spite of
every precaution, they sent down heaps of snow that rumbled as it
fell into the pass. Every time one of these miniature avalanches fell
Robert shivered. His fancy, so vitally alive, pictured savages in the
pass, attracted by the noise, and soon to fire at his helpless figure,
outlined against the slope.

"Can't you go a little faster?" he said to Willet, who was just ahead.

"It wouldn't be wise," replied the hunter. "We mustn't risk a fall.
But I know why you want to hurry on, Robert. It's the fear of being
shot in t