It seemed to me of a verity that a full hour had been spent before I looked down from the top of the wall to see Alec making an effort to clamber back.
The time had dragged heavily with him also, and fearing lest some mishap had befallen me, he was returning, forgetful of the promises made to push forward at all hazards.
I heard plainly the sigh of relief which escaped his lips when he saw me, and in another instant I was lowering myself down on the outside.
Free, so far as concerned the walls of the pen!
Now the storm was little less than a blessing to us, for the wind, howling and shrieking as it dashed the frosty particles against the walls of the huts, must have drowned any sound which we made while floundering through the snow.
A start of five minutes was all I had asked for, and this we surely would gain, unless it so chanced that a sentinel was stationed on the shore, in which case we stood every chance of being recaptured.
“It is necessary to go forward slowly, and by a devious way,” Alec whispered. “It seems most likely some of the men are on guard, and it would be a sad blow to our hopes if we ran across them now.”
“We must take the chances,” I said, bolder grown since we were free from the pen. “To leave this path would be to flounder about in the snow or the bushes, where we must necessarily make so much noise that any sentinel, however dull, could not fail to hear us. There is no other course than to push ahead and trust to chances, Alec, lad. Besides, the danger in advance is less than that behind, and if we come upon a soldier near-by the edge of the ice, surely the two of us ought to be more than a match for him, half stupefied by the cold as any man must be who has remained long outside on this night.”
There was no need for him to make answer. He stood ready to do whatsoever was needed, and I venture to say, however great the perils which menaced, he would not have flinched from braving them.
We went forward swiftly, yet making no noise that could be avoided, and when finally we were arrived at the shore of the lake no living thing could be seen.