. It
stuck to his shaggy skin-coat, and remembering that some drills had been
left near the track he felt about until he found one. The short steel
bar was easy to carry and might be useful. The next thing was to get
down without being seen, and he crept to the log-slide and sitting
down let himself go. His coat rolled up and acted like a brake, but he
reached and shot over the top of the last pitch. Next moment he struck
the logs at the bottom with a jar that left him breathless, and he lay
still to recover. His coat was white; indeed, the snow had forced its
way inside his clothes, but he must be careful about his background and
avoid abrupt movements.

Getting on his hands and knees, he crawled along the bottom of the pile.
The logs were not numerous, since some had been used, and when Charnock
reached the end he crouched in the snow and looked about. Nobody was
there and his ears were not of much use because the crash of ice drowned
every other sound. This made silence needless, and he tried to get
between the logs and the water, but found it dangerous. The chain had
sagged with the strain, and the lowest tier was scarcely a foot from the
bank, along which the ice-floes rasped.

He came back and crawled half-way up the pile, meaning to reach the top,
but stopped and lay flat. An object moved along the highest row, and he
knew it was a man. The fellow's figure showed against the sky, though
Charnock imagined he would have been invisible from above. He waited and
felt his heart beat as he clenched the bar. The other did not seem to
know he was watched and Charnock resolved to find out what he meant to
do. He thought of the chain that held the logs; if this were loosed,
the pile would roll into the river and be washed away, but it would be
impossible to slip the fastening toggle while the links were strained.
Still one might be nicked with a hacksaw and left to break with the
shock when the next log ran down the slide. The man, however, could not
get at the chain from the top row.

He came nearer and then stopped abruptly, as if alarmed. Charnock lay
close in the hollow between two logs, but his coat was snowy and it was
possible that the other had noticed the white patch. He turned and
began to move back, not fast but with caution. Charnock felt it was
unthinkable that he should get away, and raising himself, swung the
drill round his head and let it go. It flew over the other man and
vanished without a sound becau