took
refuge in this cave; how month by month they had lived on what would
hardly keep a rabbit alive; and how, at last, his master urged him to
press on with his papers; but he would not, and stayed until this day,
when the last bit of food had been eaten, and they were found.

V

The next morning Lepage was placed upon a sled, and they started back,
Bouche barking joyfully as he led off, with Cloud-in-the-Sky beside him.
There was light in the faces of all, though the light could not be seen
by reason of their being muffled so. All day they travelled, scarcely
halting, Lepage's Indian marching well. Often the corpse-like bundle on
the sled was disturbed, and biscuits wet in brandy and bits of preserved
venison were given.

That night Hume said to Late Carscallen: "I am going to start at the
first light of the morning to get to Gaspe Toujours and Jeff Hyde as
soon as possible. Follow as fast as you can. He will be safe, if you
give him food and drink often. I shall get to the place where we left
them about noon; you should reach there at night or early the next
morning."

"Hadn't you better take Bouche with you?" said Late Carscallen.

The sub-factor thought a moment, and then said: "No, he is needed most
where he is."

At noon the next day Jaspar Hume looked round upon a billowy plain of
sun and ice, but saw no staff, no signal, no tent, no sign of human
life: of Gaspe Toujours or of Jeff Hyde. His strong heart quailed. Had
he lost his way? He looked at the sun. He was not sure. He consulted his
compass, but it quivered hesitatingly. For awhile that wild bewilderment
which seizes upon the minds of the strongest, when lost, mastered
him, in spite of his struggles against it. He moved in a maze of
half-blindness, half-delirium. He was lost in it, swayed by it. He began
to wander about; and there grew upon his senses strange delights and
reeling agonies. He heard church bells, he caught at butterflies, he
tumbled in new-mown hay, he wandered in a tropic garden. But in the hay
a wasp stung him, and the butterfly changed to a curling black snake
that struck at him and glided to a dark-flowing river full of floating
ice, and up from the river a white hand was thrust, and it beckoned
him--beckoned him. He shut his eyes and moved towards it, but a voice
stopped him, and it said, "Come away, come away," and two arms folded
him round, and as he went back from the shore he stumbled and fell,
and... What is this? A y