“I am,” she answered almost peevishly. “I wish we could stay here. That box makes it so nice and warm.”
For a moment Dard was tempted to do just that. To venture out on an unknown trail through the snow and cold when they could lay snug here seemed not only foolish but almost criminal, especially when it involved taking Dessie into the wilderness. But the urgency which had sent Sach out into the very mouth of danger to draw off pursuit could not be denied. If Sach believed that the information they carried was as important as that— Well, they would uphold their part of the bargain. And there was always the fear in his mind since the coming of the ’copter, that the cave had been marked down and was known to the Peace men.
It was dusk when they came out into the snap of the cruel night air. Dard pointed to the nearest ledge of bare rock sloping downward.
“We must walk along that ledge so as not to leave tracks in the snow.
Dessie nodded. “But where the rock ends, Dardie, what do we do then?”
“Wait and see!”
They edged along the ledge and it seemed to Dard that the chill struck up from the stone with double intensity But Dessie flitted ahead and was teetering back and forth on the very edge as he caught up.
“Now,” he told her, ” we are going to jump. Into that big drift down there.”
He had meant to make that leap first, and was tensing his muscles for the spring, when Dessie went over. Whether she had voluntarily thrown herself over or whether she had lost her balance he could not tell. But before he could move she had disappeared, and a plume of snow puffed to mark her landing place. Dard crouched there uncertainly until he saw the wave of an arm. Then he plunged, calculating his fall to land him apart from Dessie. He was a moment in the frosty air and then deep in snow which choked his mouth and blinded his eyes.
When they had fought their way out of the drift Dard glanced back up the slope. They had won into the shadow of the woods where their trail would be concealed from ’copter spies. His ruse had succeeded!