To Win or to Die | Page 3

into
nothingness, for his hail was answered from close at hand.
"Ahoy! Who is it?" came echoing back.
"Help!" shouted the adventurer; and then he sank upon his sledge with
heart throbbing and a strange giddiness attacking him.
CHAPTER TWO.
FALLEN AMONG THIEVES.
"Hullo, there!" cried a rough voice. "Why don't you come on?" and the
next minute a couple of figures seemed to start out of the darkness.
"I'm fagged out. Can you lend me a hand?"

"Lend you a hand? Yes," said another voice. "Where's your mate?"
"I'm alone."
"Alone? No pal with you?"
"No, and my sledge has stuck fast. Will you help me as far as your
fire?"
"Got a sled, hev you? All right, mate. Where's the line? Lay hold,
Leggy, while I give it a hyste. That's your sort. Come on." It seemed
like a dream, and as if all the peril and horror had passed away, as the
two men dragged the sledge along and the adventurer staggered on
beside them, till they halted in the ruddy light of a great fire, lit at the
foot of a stupendous wall of glistening ice-covered rock. The fire of
pine-boughs crackled and flashed, and lit up the face of a third man, a
big red-bearded fellow, who was kneeling down tending the embers
and watching a camp kettle slung from three sticks, the contents of
which were beginning to steam.
"Here we are, Beardy," said one of the rescue party. "Comp'ny gent on
his travels."
The kneeling man scowled at the speaker, and then put his hand behind
him as if from instinct, but dropped it as the other said:
"It's all right, Beardy. Number four's empty, isn't it? Because if it aren't,
you'll have to give up your room."
The big red-bearded man showed some prominent yellow teeth in a
grin, nodded, and pushed a blazing brand under the kettle.
"Sit down, youngster," said the first speaker. "Maybe you'll jyne us at
supper?"
"I shall be very glad."
"Right you are, and welcome! 'Aven't brought anything with you, I
suppose?"

"Yes, I have some cake and bacon."
"Well done, young un. Get it out," said the red-bearded man, and,
recovered somewhat by his warm reception, the young adventurer
began to unlash the load upon the sledge, the two men who had come
to his aid eagerly joining in, their eyes glistening as they examined the
various objects that were set free.
"Going yonder after the yaller stuff?" said the owner of the red beard,
as they squatted round the fire.
"Yes."
"And all alone, too?"
The traveller nodded, and held his half-numbed hands in the warm
glow, as he furtively glanced round at his companions, whose aspect
was by no means reassuring.
"Well," continued the last speaker, "I dunno what Yankee Leggat
thinks, and I dunno what Joey Bredge has got to say, but what I says is
this. You're a-going to do what's about as silly a thing as a young man
can do."
"Why?"
"Why?" said the man fiercely; "because you're going to try and do what
no chap can do all alone. You've got a good kit and some money, I
s'pose; but you don't think you're going to get to the gold stuff, do
you?"
"Of course I do."
The man showed his yellow teeth in an unpleasant grin, and winked at
his companions.
"And all alone, eh? 'Tain't to be done, lad. You'll be stuck up before
you yet half-way there by Injuns, or some o' they Yankee shacks
yonder, stripped o' everything you've got, and set adrift, eh, Joey?"

The man addressed nodded and grunted.
"What should you say he ought to do, Leggy?"
"Make his hay while the sun shines," said the other. "He's tumbled into
a bit o' luck, and if he knows what he's about he'll just stop along with
us. We don't want him, seeing as our party's made up, but we don't
want to be hard on a lad as is a bit hign'rant o' what he's got to go
through."
"That's so," put in the man addressed as Joey. "You can't do it, mate.
Why, if it hadn't been for us you'd ha' been a hicicle afore morning, if
the bears and wolves hadn't tucked you up warm inside. You've got to
take a good offer. Now, Beardy, bring out the tins; that soup's done by
this time."
The traveller made no reply, but leaned a little more over the fire,
wishing that he had braved the dangers of the bitter frost and snow, and
feeling that he had been too ready to break down at the first encounter
with trouble. For the more he saw of his new companions the less he,
liked them, and he was not long in making up his mind