To Win or to Die Part 4

"Exactly. I hope the game is going to be worth the candle. Suppose we two stick together. You won't try to choke me the first time you see me nodding off to sleep for the sake of my sledge and stores?"

"Oh, I'll promise you that."

"It was a startler. I was dog tired."

"Eh?"

"I was dog tired, and dropping off in the warmth of the fire into a golden dream of being where the nuggets were piled up all around me; and I was just going to pick up one, when a great snake darted at me and coiled itself round my throat. Then I was awake, to find it was a real devil snake in the shape of that red-bearded ruffian."

"That was the one the others called Beardy. But don't you talk so much: your voice is growing worse."

"Can't help it, old fellow. I must talk. I'm so excited. Feel the cold?"

"Oh, no. I'm quite warm with the glow which comes up through the sheet.

A good idea, that was, of bringing it on your sledge."

"Yes, but it's heavy. I say, though, what an experience this is, here in the pitchy darkness. Ah! Look out!"

The pistols clicked again, for from somewhere close at hand there was a faint rustling sound, followed by a heavy thud, as if some one had stumbled and fallen in the snow.

The pair listened breathlessly in the black darkness, straining their eyes in the direction from whence the sound had come; but all was perfectly still.

They listened again minute after minute, and there was a dull throbbing sound which vibrated through them; but it was only the heavy beating of their own hearts.

Then they both started violently, for there was another dull heavy thud, and some one hissed as if drawing in his breath to suppress the strong desire to utter a cry of pain.

It was horrible in that intense blackness to crouch there with pistols held ready directed towards the spot where whoever it was had fallen, for there could be no doubt whatever. There had been the fall, not many yards from where they knelt, and they listened vainly for the rustling that must accompany the attempt to get up again.

At last the faint rustling came, and the temptation to fire was almost too strong to be resisted. But they mastered it, and waited, both determined and strung up with the desire to mete out punishment to the cowardly miscreants who sought for their own gain to destroy their fellow-creatures.

"Don't fire till you are sure it is they," each of the two young men thought. "It is impossible to take aim in this darkness."

And they waited till the rustling ended in a sort of whisper.

Once more all was silent, and the suspense grew maddening, as they waited minutes which seemed like hours.

But the enemy was evidently astir, for there was another whisper, and another--strange warning secretive whispers--and a sigh as of one in pain.

At this one of the listeners thrust out a hand, and the other joined in an earnest grip, which told of mutual trust and determination to stand by each other to the death, making them feel that the terrible emergency had made them, not acquaintances of an hour's length, but staunch friends, both strong and tried. Then they loosened the warm, manly grip, and were ready for the worst.

For there was no longer any doubt: the enemy was close at hand, waiting the moment for the deadly rush. The only question was whether they should fire at once--not with the thought of hitting, but to teach the scoundrels how thoroughly they were on the alert, and in the hope of driving them into taking to flight once more.

But they doubted. A few shots had done this once, but now that the miscreants had had time to recover from their panic, would it answer again?

Thud! thud! in front, and then a far heavier one behind them. They could not hold out much longer. The enemy was creeping towards them.

At this moment there was a tremendous crack, a hissing roar, and a terrific concussion, the defenders of the tiny fort being struck down behind their little breastwork.

But this onslaught was not from the enemy they awaited. The ever-gathering snow from far above, loosened by the hot current of air ascending from the fire, had come down in one awful charge, and the marauders' camp was buried in an instant beneath thousands of tons of snow.

CHAPTER FIVE.

HAND IN HAND.

There was the sense of a terrible weight pressing the sufferers down, with their chests against the soft load bound upon the sledge in front; and utterly stunned, they lay for a time motionless, and almost breathless.

Then one began to struggle violently, striving to draw himself back, and after a tremendous effort succeeding, to find that beneath him the snow was loose, there being a narrow s.p.a.ce along by the side of the sledge, and that though his breath came short he could still breathe.

He had hardly grasped this fact when the movement on his right told of a similar action going on, and he began to help his companion in misfortune, who directly after crouched down beside him, panting heavily, in the narrow s.p.a.ce, which their efforts had, however, made wider.

"Horrible!" panted the second at last. "An avalanche. Surely this does not mean death."

There was no reply, and in the awful darkness a hand was stretched out and an arm grasped.

"Why don't you say something?" whispered the speaker hoa.r.s.ely.

"What can I say, man? G.o.d only knows."

"But it is only snow. We must burrow our way out. Wait a moment. This way is towards the open valley."

"No, no; this. Beyond you is the wall of rock. Let me try."

For the next ten minutes there was the sound of one struggling to get through the snow, and then it ended with the hoa.r.s.e panting of a man lying exhausted with his efforts.

"Let me come and try now," came in smothered accents.

"It is of no use. The snow was loose at first, but farther on it is pressed together hard like ice. Try your way."

The scuffling and tearing commenced now to the right.

"Yes; it's quite loose now, and falls down. Ah! _no good_; here is the solid rock running up as far as I can reach."

"I can hardly breathe. It is growing hotter every moment."

"No; it is cooler here. I can reach right up and stand against the rock."

The speaker's companion in the terrible peril crept over the snow to his side and rose to his feet, to find the air purer; and, like a drowning man who had raised his head for the moment above water, he drank in deep draughts of the cold, sweet air.

"Hah!" he gasped at last hoa.r.s.ely, after reaching up as high as he could, "the rock has saved us for the moment. The snow slopes away from it like the roof of a shed."

"Yes; if we had been a few feet farther from it we should have been crushed to death. Let's try and tear a way along by the foot of the rock."

They tried hard in turn till they were utterly exhausted and lay panting; but the only result was that the loose snow beneath them became trampled down. No, not the only result; they increased the s.p.a.ce within what was fast becoming a snow cavern, one of whose walls was the solid rocky side of the ravine.

"Are we to die like this?"