"Ahoy!" shouted Ranworth.
At the sound of his voice, both men raised their heads. Their faces were black and almost hidden by thick beards.
One of the men raised his arm and gave vent to a feeble shout which seemed almost stifled in his throat, and pitched inertly upon the snow. His companion stood stock still for a few seconds, then rubbed his eyes vigorously as if unable to credit his sense of vision. Then, extending both arms, he struggled forward for a few paces and collapsed in a heap.
Ranworth and Guy raised the man to a sitting position, while Leslie and O'Donovan directed their attention to the unfortunate individual who had been the first to collapse.
The former was not unconscious, but almost done up through sheer exhaustion. He was a great, hulking fellow of more than six feet in height, and too heavy for even the united efforts of the Bird of Freedom's crew to carry through the snow.
"Lift him on to the sleigh," ordered Ranworth. "You, Guy, steady him so that he won't fall off. We'll drag him back to the Bird of Freedom. The other man is unconscious. A few minutes more won't hurt him much."
It was an easy matter to drag the light sleigh with its burden, but the difficulty was to get the heavy man up and through the doorway in the side of the Bird of Freedom. He was incapable of assisting himself, and his bulk, rendered additionally great by his thick fur clothing, afforded little grip. The "entry port" of the motor-sleigh was not intended for men of his girth.
"Can't we raise him on this, sir?" asked Leslie, indicating the little sleigh on which the man had been brought alongside the Bird of Freedom.
"Right-o," assented Ranworth. "Get on board, Leslie, and open the hatchway. Then lower that rope-ladder from the roof."
This Leslie did, then, descending to the interior of the motor-sleigh, he "stood by," while by dint of strenuous exertion, his three companions raised the impromptu stretcher and its burden until one end rested on the sill of the door. Then Leslie assisted in hauling in the helpless man until the stretcher was almost balanced, half in and half out of the Bird of Freedom.