'Forget it,' I said. 'I'm a bit strung-up, that's all.' And I lay back against the pillow.
'Well, anyway,' he said, 'I'm glad you're all right. I did everything I could. I'm terribly sorry about it. It was my fault. I realise that. But I honestly thought you'd have no difficulty at the bottom of that run. I blame myself for not realising that the tracks were being covered up so quickly.' He got up then.
I said, 'Don't worry about it.'
When he had gone out of the room, Joe uncovered a plate of scrambled eggs and placed it beside me. 'What the devil were you driving at, Neil?' he asked as I began to eat. 'Why question him about his Army career?'
'Because somebody told me he was a deserter,' I said, with my mouth full. It was good to taste food again. 'One of them is a liar. I'll find out which before I'm through.'
'Don't understand your attitude,' he grunted. 'Mayne's a decent enough fellow. He couldn't have done more. Rang us up as soon as he got into Carbonin. I answered the phone. He was terribly worried. He must have been dog-tired after a bad run like that. But he went straight out again with a search-party he got together at Carbonin. Didn't get in till dark. It wasn't his fault he couldn't locate you.'
I shrugged my shoulders and went on eating. He seemed to be annoyed by my silence. 'I think you're being damned uncharitable in the matter,' he went on. 'Know what you said when you came to and I was giving you brandy? I asked what had happened. And you told me that Mayne had tried to murder you.'
I looked up at his heavy, friendly features. He was so sure of the world about him. It was just something to take pictures of. 'You thought I was just unstrung by what had happened?'
'Of course you were,' he said soothingly. 'Believe me, that boy did all he could. It wasn't his fault that you went into some soft snow and that his ski tracks got covered up. Anything can happen up in the mountains when it comes on thick like that. The guide who carried you part of the way down, he told me several stories of people caught that way. Trouble was you tried to do too much when you were out of practice.'
I said nothing about that. What was the good? But Mayne had lied when he said he'd done a straight turn at the bottom of that run.