Page:The trail of the golden horn.djvu/129

Rh filled with such thoughts which only come to people who have stood face to face with death.

“What are we to do, John?” Marion at length asked. “I suppose the dogs were lost, too, as well as the camping outfit.”

“Everything is gone, no doubt,” was the quiet reply. “In all my experience on the trails I have never run up against anything like this. Snow-slides are common on the mountain side, but hitherto I have always managed to escape them.”

“And to think that I should be with you, John, to add to your trouble.”

“Don’t, don’t say that, darling,” North pleaded, as he kissed her upon the lips, and was pleased to see the color flood her cheeks. “You will be a help to me instead of a hindrance. We shall get out of this, all right.”

Notwithstanding the sergeant’s words of encouragement, he fully realised the seriousness of their situation. Twenty miles from The Gap, with no food and no dogs, and with a woman unaccustomed to the trail made their plight appalling. How helpless they were, mere pigmies in that vast wilderness of forest, snow, and stinging cold. Then, in addition to all these, should a storm sweep upon them, their case would be hopeless.