With one last effort, he threw himself flat, gripped his bow, then committed his spirit to the great Father of all. The next instant the cutting of cold air across his face told him he was going down, down, down—to what?
This lasted for a space of seconds that seemed years. Then came a sudden shock; after that silence and darkness.
Faye Duncan and her grandfather, as was their custom before retiring for the night, were partaking of a cup of tea when the sudden thunder of the avalanche reached their ears. A serious, questioning look passed from the girl to her grandsire as they sprang to their feet. The glance was returned. Not a word was spoken.
As they stood there listening, intent, motionless, a swift cold breath of air fanned their cheeks, a thin film of snow gathered on their garments. That was all.
It was all over in a moment. Once more the vast silence of the wilderness at night settled about them.
Gordon Duncan was by nature a silent man. Suspense only served to deepen that silence. For a full hour he sat there beside his granddaughter while the firelight played across his immobile face.
“If he comes to-night,” he said at last, rising slowly, “he’ll be late. We’ll heap the fire high. It will serve as a beacon. We—we can look in the morning,” he added slowly. “By night the mountain is treacherous. Nothing is to be gained.”
Faye Duncan lay beneath her blankets a long time before sleep came. In her mind many questions revolved themselves like the turn of a heathen prayer wheel. Where was Johnny Longbow? Why did he not return? What was it that had brought them so far into the wilderness? An old man’s dream of treasure. Her grandfather had said it should be near here. Was it? Was their search to end so soon? Would Johnny return? If not, what then? What of those moving creatures on the river island?
“The river is rising,” she told herself. “Soon that low island will be flooded. They must leave it. If they are human beings, I hope they have a boat.”
Then a thought struck her all of a heap. Her grandfather would find in the need of these people, if need there was, a mission. Would this delay their search, their return? She hoped not. Of late the wilderness had seemed to be closing in upon her, shutting her from the world she had known. She longed for the return to their cozy cabin where the first snowdrops would be blooming and all the air fragrant with spring.