“I guess I’m not going to find them this time,” he said as he mounted a pinnacle of rock and looked about him. “It looks like a good place, too,” he added.
“Hark, something’s coming,” said Nat in a whisper.
There was a crackling in the bushes to Jack’s right. He turned in that direction, his rifle in readiness. Something was moving there. Was it a mountain sheep?
He raised his gun. A dark object could be seen to be moving behind the screen of bushes, and the snow on them was shaken off.
Suddenly there stepped into view, not a mountain sheep, but the figure of a lad, all in tatters.
For an instant Jack and Nat stared at the youth. He had appeared so unexpectedly that they did not know what to say. On his part, the lad stood there silent, as if he did not know what to do.
Then Jack threw down his rifle and sprang forward, at the same time crying out:
“Bill! It’s Bill Williams! Well, how in the world did you ever get here?”