Page:Edison Marshall--The voice of the pack.djvu/271

Rh But me—I'm too tired to make the try. I don't care about it enough. I'm going to wave you good-by, and smile, and lie here and let the cold come down. You feel warm in a little while—"

But she stopped his lips with her hand. And he bent and kissed it.

"If anybody's going to stay with you," Dan told them in a clear, firm voice, "it's going to be me. But are n't any of the cabins occupied?"

"You know they are n't," Lennox answered. "Not even the houses beyond the North Fork, even if we could get across. The nearest help is over seventy miles."

"And Snowbird, think! Have n't any supplies been left in the ranger station?"

"Not one thing," the girl told him. "You know Cranston and his crowd robbed the place last winter. And the telephone lines were disconnected when the rangers left."

"Then the only way is for me to stay here. You can take the pistol, and you 'll have a fair chance of getting through. I 'll grub wood for our camp meanwhile, and you can bring help."

"And if the wolves come, or if help did n't come in time," Lennox whispered, passion-drawn for the first time, "who would pay what we owe to Cranston?"