Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/129

 lantern was procured, all three of us returning to the guard house for that purpose. How well I remember the Doctor’s vigorous protest against our mad folly when we started out  the second time.

“We must keep together,” said the adept, “so perhaps after all it is better with a lantern, it will be a help on that  score, if no other. Give it to me. We shall have to go single file. It is not so far.”

Think of the folly of it! Where were we going and why? I find myself at a loss for words to explain the feelings I experienced when we moved away from the guard house in the face of the storm, wallowing in snow already  knee deep.

We had heard no cry for help, had seen nothing, knew nothing to make it appear that our mad venture had any  object. We were acting entirely on the bare claim of this singular individual to a superhuman sight. Bitterly I cursed the strange influence which he had come to exercise  over Maurice, but for my friend’s sake I struggled on, firm  in the belief that we had started on a fruitless quest.

It was useless to try and talk, for only by shouting could we make ourselves heard. The fury of the wind seemed to increase every moment. The snow whirled against our faces with blinding intensity, yet in spite of it all we started down  the mountain road by the way we had come.

Mr. Mirrikh went first, Maurice followed, I, keeping as close to my friend as possible, brought up the rear.

On our left rose a wall of rock towering high above our heads; on the right yawned a precipice over the edge of  which one false step might precipitate us to an awful fate. All this I had seen before darkness settled over the mountain and remembered it but too well. Ten minutes passed—it seemed as though we had been fighting the storm for hours. Raising my voice to the highest pitch, I called to Mr. Mirrikh and implored him to return.

“Courage!” he shouted back. “Courage, Mr. Wylde! It is but a few steps! Do you remember that big white boulder you examined on the way up and pronounced an  evidence of glacial action—it is there.”

“We can’t be far from that now,” cried Maurice. “It was only a few minutes before we reached the guard house  after we passed it.”

“We are close upon it!” he called. “Just a little more