Larke commenced to sputter and cough.
"Quiet!" I whispered, for the man was yet within hearing.
"Loose your hand, then!" he returned. "Tis easy enough to say quiet, but 'tis not so easy to choke quietly."
In my fluster I was holding his head tightly pressed into the snow, so that he could only have caught the barest glimpse of the man.
"Who was it?" he asked.
"One of Lukstein's servants."
"You know him?"
"I have seen him, and he has seen me. Maybe he would know me again."
We got safely quit of the houses and turned into the upward stretch of road, towards the buttress of rock. It jutted out across our path, and was plainly distinguishable, for the night was pure and clean, and appeared to be tinctured with a vague light from the snow-fields. I noticed, too, that on the far side of the valley a pale radiance was welling over the brim of the hills with promise of the moon. 'Twas a very sweet sight to me, since climbing an unknown rock-ridge in the dark hath little to commend it, unless it be necessity.
At the foot of the rib we halted and prepared to ascend. But nowhere could I find a cranny for my fingers or a knob for my boot. The surface was indeed, as Jack had said, as smooth as an egg-shell. I stepped back to the outer edge of the road and examined it as thoroughly as was possible.