Page:Edison Marshall--The voice of the pack.djvu/312

294 I could only make you do what I want you to—"

"What?"

"You 're able to climb a tree, and if you'd take these coats, you would n't freeze by morning. If you'd only have the strength—"

"And see you torn to pieces!"

"I'm old, dear—and very tired—and I'd crawl away into the shadows, where you could n't see. There's no use mincing words, Snowbird. You 're a brave girl—always have been since a little thing, as God is my Judge—and you know we must face the truth. Better one of us die than both. And I promise—I 'll never feel their fangs. And I won't take your pistol with me either."

Her thought flashed to the clasp hunting knife that he carried in his pocket. But her eyes lighted, and she bent and kissed him. And the wolves leaped forward even at this.

"We 'll stay it out," she told him. "We 'll fight it to the last—just as Dan would want us to do. Besides—it would only mean the same fate for me, in a little while. I could n't cling up there forever—and Dan won't come back."

She was wholly unable to gain on the fire. Only by dint of the most heart-breaking toil