“It has been the experience of my life. I shall fence it off from all the days that have passed and all that are to come,” she made answer vividly.
Their eyes met, but only for an instant.
“I am glad,” he said quietly.
He began, then, to tell her what he must do, but at the first word of it she broke out in protest.
“No—no—no! We shall stay together. If you go I am going, too.”
“I wish you could, but it is not possible. You could never get there. The snow is too soft and heavy for wading and not firm enough to bear your weight.”
“But you will have to wade.”
“I am stronger than you, lieutenant.”
“I know, but——” She broke down and confessed her terror. “Would you leave me here—alone—with all this snow Oh, I couldn’t stay—I couldn’t.”
“It’s the only way,” he said steadily. Every fiber in him rebelled at leaving her here to face peril alone, but his reason overrode the desire and rebellion that were hot within him. He must think first of her ultimate safety, and this lay in getting her away from here at the first chance.