To Win or to Die | Page 5

he struggled on
aimlessly till utterly exhausted; and then he paused, breathless, to go
over once more the scene by the glowing fire, and ask himself whether
he had not been to blame for displaying his distrust after the way in
which he had been rescued. But he could only come back to his old
way of thinking--that he had fallen among thieves of the worst type,
and that he owed his life to the prompt way in which he had escaped.
Recovering his breath somewhat, he stood listening as he gazed back
through the darkness; but all was still. There were no signs of pursuit,
so, taking out his handkerchief, he folded it into a bandage, and with
one hand and his teeth contrived to bind and tie it tightly round his
wound so as to stop the bleeding, which was beginning to cause a
strange sensation of faintness.
He had been hot with exertion when he stopped, but now the feeling of
exhilaration caused by his escape died out as rapidly as the heat. A
deadly chill attacked mind and body, for his position seemed crushing.
It was horrible beyond bearing, and for the moment he was ready to
throw himself down in his despair. The intense cold would, he knew,
soon bring on a sensation of drowsiness, which would result in sleep,
and there would be no pain--nothing but rest from which there would
be no awakening; and then--
Then the coward feeling was driven back in a brave effort--a last
struggle for life.
The cold was intense, the darkness thicker than ever, for the sides of the

ravine had been closing in till only a narrow strip of faintly marked sky
was visible, while at every few steps taken slowly the poor fellow
stumbled over some inequality and nearly fell.
At times he struck himself heavily, but he was beyond feeling pain, and
in his desperation these hindrances acted merely as spurs to fresh effort,
for he was on the way to safety. At any minute he felt that he might
catch sight of another gleam of light, the camp fire of some other
adventurer, and he knew that some of those on the way to the great
Eldorado must be men who would help and even protect a
fellow-creature in his dire state of peril.
But he knew that this intense feeling of energy could not last, that he
was rapidly growing weaker, and that ere many minutes had elapsed he
would once more stumble and fall, and this time the power to rise again
would have passed away.
Was it too late to return to his enemies and make an appeal for his life?
he asked himself at last. They might show him mercy, and life was so
sweet.
But as these thoughts flickered through his brain in the half delirium
fast deadening his power of thinking coherently, he once more saw the
scene by the fire, and the faces of the three scoundrels stood out clearly
with that relentless look, that cruel bestial glare of the eye, which told
him that an appeal would but hasten his end.
"Better fall into the hands of God than men like them," he groaned, and
setting his teeth hard he tottered on a few yards farther, with the snow
growing less deep, the ground more stony.
Then the end came sooner than he expected, for his feet caught against
something stretched across his way, and he fell heavily, uttering a cry
of horror as he struggled to his knees.
For it was no block of stone, no tree-trunk torn from some shelf in the
precipice above; he grasped the fact in an instant that he had tripped
over a sledge similar to his own, to fall headlong upon the ghastly

evidence of what was to be his own fate; for stiff and cold in the
shallow snow, his fingers had come upon the body of some unfortunate
treasure-seeker, and as, half-wild with horror, he forced himself to
search with his hands to discover whether some spark of life might yet
be burning, it was to find that whoever it was must have laid calmly
down in his exhaustion, clasping his companion to his breast to give
and receive the warmth that might save both their lives.
Vain effort. The man's breast was still for ever, and the faithful dog that
had nestled closely with his muzzle in his master's neck was stiff and
stark.
"God help me!" groaned the adventurer, clasping his hands and letting
them fall softly on the dead; "is this the ending of my golden dream?"
CHAPTER THREE.
IN THE DARK.
The horrible chill of impending death, the bright light of reason, and
the intense desire to live, roused the half-stunned adventurer to action.
Die?