“Come, obey me now,” said Bracy quietly. “Get close to me, then, and cover it over us both.”
“You mean that, sir?”
“Yes.—There, my lad, all men are equal at a time like this. I have striven to the last, but Fate has been against me from the first. I give up now.”
“I didn’t want to run against you, sir; but I was obliged.”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“You wouldn’t have gone and left me, sir?”
“I don’t know,” said Bracy slowly.
“I do, sir; I know you wouldn’t.”
“Let it rest, my lad, and we’ll wait for day. God help the poor creatures at the fort, and God help us too!”
“Amen!” said Gedge to himself; and as the warmth began to steal through his half-frozen limbs he lay gazing at the distant glow of the enemy’s fire far away below, till it grew more and more faint, and then seemed to die right out—seemed, for it was well replenished again and again through the night, and sent up flames and sparks as if to give a signal far away, for the supply of fir-branches was abundant, and the fire rose in spirals up into the frosty sky.