But there was no noise, the Lad sitting perfectly rigid, speechless, staring at the man. Presently he put out a hand, slowly, and touched the guide as if to make sure that the fall had not been fatal. And still neither of us spoke. Prunier was going to recommence. He opened his mouth, but it was only to yawn.
“Mon Dieu,” he said, “but I sleep! It ees very late.” And the man actually rose.
“But 'mon Dieu,'” I said, “you can't leave us falling over a precipice! What happened? Tell us at least what happened. And you haven't even mentioned the pillar of fire or of smoke.”
“C'est une très longue histoire.” [“It is a very long story.”]
“Poor ole Pierre!” said the Lad, as if coming out of a dream; “did it kill him?”
Prunier shook his head, no. “It kill only the wolves we landed on—geplump! We had stopped on a gravel ledge, with the cold breath of the river rushing by a foot away. I never lose sense. I begin chuck wolves into the river. Three—four—five, in they go, my back bending, my back straightening, and gesplash! another howl down-stream! I think I never lose sense. But I did.” He stopped again, and rubbed a slow hand across his summer-tanned brow. “I must have losed sense. In the morning there are no animals on the ledge.”
“You mean—” began the Lad, and did not finish. Prunier nodded.
“But he would not have lived anyway,” I said, to ease the pain in his memory. “Ole Pierre could not have lived with all the wolf-bites he must have had.”
“I hope he know I was not in my sense,” said Prunier. “Alors, dawn came soon, and I cross the stream on big rocks and climb up birch sapling to the opposite bank. I look back. No sign of wolves. I look forward, no sign of life to the north pole, no forest even, just endless plain to the frozen river endless far away.
“I give a big groan, for there is no strength in my legs, no courage in my heart, and I feel like falling on my knees and asking le bon Dieu to show me the way. And it was as if He had heard, for suddenly my eye is caught by a thin pillar of white ascending into the gray sky.