I'll send Gage back, anyhow," he said.

"Don't think of it!" called Peggy.

As a matter of fact, Alice was glad to have the men pull out. Their
pity, their reproach, irritated her. It was as if they repeated aloud a
scornful phrase--"You're a lovely and tempting creature, but you're a
fool-hen just the same."

The two women spent the day peacefully, save now and then when Alice's
wounded foot ached and needed care; but as night began to rise in the
canyon like the smoke of some hidden, silent, subterranean fire, and the
high crags glowed in the last rays of the sun, each of them acknowledged
a touch of that immemorial awe of the darkness with which the race
began.

Peggy, seating herself in the doorway, described the scene to her
patient, who could see but little of it. "Oh, but it's gloriously
uncanny to be here. Only think! We are now alone with God and His
animals, and the night."

"I hope none of God's bears is roaming about," replied Alice,
flippantly.

"There aren't any bears above the berries. We're perfectly safe. My
soul! but it's a mighty country! I wish you could see the glow on the
peaks."

"I'm taking my punishment," replied Alice. "Freeman was very angry,
wasn't he?"

"If it breaks off the match I won't be surprised," replied Peggy, with
resigned intonation.

"There wasn't any match to break off."

"Well!" replied the other, and as she slowly rose she added: "I won't
say that he is perfectly distracted about you, but I do know that he
thinks more of you than of any other woman in the world, and I've no
doubt he is worrying about you this minute."

II

It was deep moonless night when Alice woke with a start. For a few
moments she lay wondering what had roused her--then a bright light
flashed and her companion screamed.

"Who's there!" demanded the girl.

In that instant flare she saw a man's face, young, smooth, with dark
eyes gleaming beneath a broad hat. He stood like a figure of bronze
while his match was burning, then exclaimed in breathless wonder:

"Great Peter's ghost! a woman!" Finally he stepped forward and looked
down upon the white, scared faces as if uncertain of his senses. "Two of
them!" he whispered. As he struck his second match he gently asked:
"Would you mind saying how you got here?"

Alice spoke first. "We came up with a geological survey. I got hurt and
they had to leave us behind."

"Where's your party gone?"

"Up to the glaciers."

"When did they leave?"