he was
on his feet, swinging his arms silently. His candle had gone out, but a
faint light was showing in the room.

"Is it morning?" she asked.

"Just about," he replied, stretching like a cat.

The dawn came gloriously. The sun in far-splashing splendor slanted from
peak to peak, painting purple shadows on the snow and warming the boles
of the tall trees till they shone like fretted gold. The jays cried out
as if in exultation of the ending of the tempest, and the small stream
sang over its icy pebbles with resolute cheer. It was a land to fill a
poet with awe and ecstatic praise--a radiant, imperial, and merciless
landscape. Trackless, almost soundless, the mountain world lay waiting
for the alchemy of the sun.

VI

The morning was well advanced when a far, faint halloo broke through the
silence of the valley. The ranger stood like a statue, while Peggy cried
out:

"It's one of our men!"

Alice turned to the outlaw with anxious face. "If it's the sheriff stay
in here with me. Let me plead for you. I want him to know what you've
done for us."

The look that came upon his face turned her cold with fear. "If it is
the sheriff--" He did not finish, but she understood.

The halloo sounded nearer and the outlaw's face lightened. "It's one of
your party. He is coming up from below."

Impatiently they waited for the new-comer to appear, and though he
seemed to draw nearer at every shout, his progress was very slow. At
last the man appeared on the opposite bank of the stream. He was covered
with snow and stumbling along like a man half dead with hunger and
fatigue.

"Why, it's Gage!" exclaimed Peggy.

It was indeed the old hunter, and as he drew near his gaunt and
bloodless face was like that of a starved and hunted animal. His first
word was an anxious inquiry, "How are ye?"

"All well," Peggy answered.

"And the crippled girl?"

"Doing nicely. Thanks to Mr. Smith here, we did not freeze. Are you
hungry?"

The guide looked upon the outlaw with glazed, protruding eyes. "Hungry?
I'm done. I've been wallerin' in the snow all night and I'm just about
all in."

"Where are the others?" called Alice from her bed.

Gage staggered to the door. "They're up at timber-line. I left them day
before yesterday. I tried to get here, but I lost my bearin's and got on
the wrong side o' the creek. 'Pears like I kept on the wrong side o' the
hogback. Then my horse gave out, and that set me afoot. I was plum
scared to