To Win or to Die | Page 8

make mine speak to it in a friendly grip. God bless you, sir!
you've saved my life. I can't say more now."
"Don't. There: we have no light to betray us now."
CHAPTER FOUR.
NATURE'S MISTAKE.
"But hadn't we better go on?"
"No: warmth is everything here. The ground is hot where the fire was,
and we'll camp there till morning. I saw you had a sledge. We'll drag
that to one side for shelter."
"And there is theirs, too," was said huskily.

"Mine!" was the reply. "The scoundrels inveigled me into staying with
them, and I had a narrow escape."
"Hah! Just as they served me. I saw their light and came up, and they
professed to be friends. I didn't like the look of them, but one can't pick
one's company out here, and a good fire was very tempting."
"Hist!"
The warning was followed by the clicking of pistol locks, after which
the pair listened patiently for some minutes.
"Nothing. Here, let's get the two sledges one on either side of the hot
ground. One will be a shelter, the other a breastwork to fire over if the
scoundrels come back. Besides, the breastwork will keep in the heat.
We are bound to protect ourselves."
"All right," was the reply, in an answering whisper, and the pair
dragged the two sledges into position, and then, allowing for the dank
odour of the quenched wood, found that they had provided themselves
with a snugly warm shelter, adding to their comfort by means of
blankets and a waterproof sheet, which they spread beneath them.
This took time, for every now and then they paused to listen or make a
reconnaissance in search of danger; but at last all was done, and the
question was who should keep the first watch.
"I'll do that," said the last comer. "I couldn't lie down to sleep if I tried;
my throat gives me so much pain. It feels swollen right up. I'll take the
first watch--listen, one ought to say. Why, I can't even see my hand."
"It is terribly dark here in this gulch," was the whispered reply. "The
mountains run up perpendicularly on either side. But I couldn't sleep
after all I've gone through to-night. My nerves are all on the jar. I'll
watch with you."
"Listen."

"Well, listen, then. Watch with our ears. Can you hear me when I
whisper?"
"Oh, yes."
"But they will not come back, I'm sure."
"So much the better for them; but I hope that the miserable, treacherous
hounds will meet their reward. So they attacked you just in the same
way?"
"Not till I told them I would not stay; and I was sorry afterwards,
feeling that perhaps I had insulted them by my suspicions. Of course, I
did not know their character then."
"No. Well, we know it now. It is a specimen, I suppose, of the scum we
shall find yonder."
"I am afraid so."
"You are going after gold, of course?"
"Who would be here if he were not?"
"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