The prisoner listened, with every nerve on the strain, and it was repeated.
So great was the tension, that as soon as the sound came for the second time the listener uttered a wild shriek of joy. It was hardly a cry. He had struggled to free himself from his icy bonds to go to his cousin’s help, and awakened to the fact that he was helpless, and he had dared to despair, when all the time Dallas was alive and toiling hard to come and free him. The sensation of joy and delight was almost maddening, and he listened again.
There it was—a dull, low, indescribable sound which appealed to him all through, for he felt it more with his chest than with his ears. It was a kind of a jar which came through the snow, communicated from particle to particle, telegraphed to him by the worker below, and it told that Dallas was strong and well, and striving hard to get free.
How long would it take him to dig his way through? Not long, for he could not be so deep down now.
He waited, counting every stroke of the shovel, and a fresh joy thrilled the listener, for those light jars sent fresh hope in waves, telling him as they did that though he was so benumbed, his body must be full of sensation. It could not be deadened by the cold.
“Bah! I must naturally be a coward at heart,” the poor fellow said to himself. “Dal’s worth a dozen of me. I think of helping him? Pooh! it is always he who takes that rôle.”
But his mind went back again to the one thought—How long would it take Dallas to dig his way out in spite of his wound? Not so very long—the strokes of the shovel came so regularly. But what an escape for both!
“Not free yet, though,” muttered the prisoner. “That’s right, work away, Dal. Your muscles were always stronger than mine. Get out and we’ll reach the gold yet, and win the prize we came for.—I wonder whether he could hear me if I shouted!”
He bowed his head as far as he could, nearly touching the snow with his lips.
“Dal, ahoy! ahoy!” he shouted; and a few moments after came the answer, “Ahoy—ahoy–oy–oy!” from the icy rocks up the valley.