“It is the snow-blindness,” said Sibou. “He cannot see. He only feels, and there is danger everywhere for him.”
“Oh,” cried Joy, “can nothing be done?”
“Something can be tried,” answered the corporal, beginning to get down the bank.
Sibou followed him, and they moved towards the blinded man in imminent risk of their lives. The ice seemed to be in movement everywhere, and the noise out on the river was increasing. Even as they stepped on the ice, it broke loose from the bank, and the rescuers felt it shake beneath their feet. Cracks appeared through which the water spurted, but they moved forward, for both were aware that the ice beneath them might be thrown into the air as by some living monster and themselves thrown into the swirling water.
A providence seemed to watch over the blind man. He had turned again and now was running towards them. With a luck that was almost uncanny he passed a couple of yawning cavities from which the water welled, and once, he put his foot on emptiness, he leaped from the other foot, and crossed the danger before him at a bound. They were but fifteen yards apart, when suddenly Sibou stood still and gripped his companion’s arm.
“Behold!” he said quickly. “The man who was with me when the trail was blown up before Mr. Gargrave.”
Roger Bracknell also stood still, and looked at the figure shambling towards them. There was a distraught look on the man’s face, a madness of fear that convulsed it, but in spite of that Roger Bracknell recognized it. It was the face of Adrian Rayner.
Whilst he stood there, stunned, and held inactive by the recognition, there was a sound of splintering at the corporal’s feet, and instinctively both he and Sibou leaped backward. The ice parted, and a little lane of turgid water appeared between them and the snow-blind man. The latter still came on. Roger Bracknell watched him like a man hypnotized; but when Rayner had almost reached the place where the fracture had occurred, he cried out suddenly, in agonized warning—
“Look out, Rayner! For God’s sake, look out!”
His cry must have been heard by Rayner, for the latter halted suddenly, and threw up his arm as if to ward off a blow. Then he gave a great cry of fear, and turning suddenly began to run away from the bank. He ran fast, helped by some great impulse of fear, but he ran only a little way. A stretch of open water appeared in the line he followed, and unconscious of its existence, he ran straight into it. They saw the plunge, and watched painfully. A moment later his head appeared above the water, and disappeared again, as the rush of water hurled him forward. There was no further sign of him, and as delay was dangerous both of them turned and raced for the bank.