Page:Weird Tales Volume 9 Number 1 (1927-01).djvu/17

 I knew that it would be difficult, surely we could find our way back to the camp.

"The fog thinned, and the rocks loomed up before us, dim and ghostly but close at hand. Then the vapor thickened, and they were gone. We were in the midst of crevasses now and had to proceed with great caution.

How it happened none of us knew; but of â sudden we saw that we had lost the trail. But we did not turn back to find it. It didn't matter, really. The demon and the angel had gone to those rocks. Of that we were certain. And the rocks were right before us, though we couldn't see them now.

"We went on. Minutes passed. And still there were no rocks. At length we had to acknowledge it: in the twistings and turnings we had been compelled to make among those cursed crevasses, we had missed our objective, and now we knew not where we were.

"But we knew that we were not far. White and Long cursed and wanted to know how we were ever going to find our way back through this fog, since we had failed to find the rocks when they had been right there in front of us. 'Twas the crevasses, I told them, that had done it. But it was nothing; we would find that rock mass. We started. Of a sudden Long gave a sharp but low exclamation, and his hand clutched at my arm. "Voices! he whispered.

. Not a sound. Suddenly the glacier cracked and boomed, then silence again. We waited, listening. Not the faintest sound. Long, we decided, must have been deceived. But he declared that he had not.

"'I heard voices, I tell you!' "We listened again.

"'There!' he said. 'Hear them?'

"Yes, there, coming to us from out the fog, were voices, plain, unmistakable, and yet at the same time—how shall I say it?—strangely muffled. I wondered if the fog did that; but it couldn't be the fog. One voice was silvery and strong—that of Sklokoyum's angel doubtless; the other deep and rough, the voice of a man. The woman (or girl) seemed to be urging something, pleading with him. Once we thought there came a third voice, but we could not be. sure of that. But of one thing we were sure: they were not speaking in English, in Spanish, French, Siwash or Chinook. And we felt certain, too, that it was not Scandinavian, German or Italian.

"'They are over there,' said Long, pointing.

"'No, there!' whispered White.

"For my part, I was convinced that these mysterious beings were in still a different direction!

"We got in motion, uncertain, though, whether we were really going in the right direction; but we could not be greatly in error. Soon came to a great crevasse. White leaped across, and on the instant the voices ceased.

"Had they heard? We waited, White crouching there on the other side. Soon the sounds came again, whereupon White, in spite of my whispered remonstrance, began stealing forward. Long and I, being less active, did not care to risk that jump, and so we made our way along the edge of the fissure, seeking a place to cross. This we were not long in finding, but by this time, to my profound uneasiness, White had disappeared in the fog.

"We advanced cautiously, and as swiftly as possible. This, however, was not very swiftly. See! There it was—the ghostly loom of the rocks through the vapor. At that instant