"Yes, sir, I hear."

"Then obey your officer's orders."

"You ain't an officer now, sir; you're a patient waiting to be carried to the rear, after going down in front."

"How dare you!" cried Bracy fiercely. "Obey my orders."

"They ain't your orders, and it ain't my dooty to obey a poor fellow as has gone stick stark raving mad."

"Obey my orders, dog, or--"

"I won't!" cried Gedge pa.s.sionately. "I'll be drummed out if I do."

"You dog!" roared Bracy, and the pistol clicked.

"Shoot me, then, for a dog," cried Gedge pa.s.sionately, "and if I can I'll try to lick yer hand, but I won't leave you now."

The pistol fell with a dull sound as Bracy sank back, and in that terrible darkness and silence, amid the icy snow, a hoa.r.s.e groan seemed to tear its way from the young officer's breast.

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

A WILD IDEA.

How long that silence lasted neither could have afterwards said, but after a time Bracy felt a couple of hands busy drawing the spare _poshtin_ more about him. Then a face was placed close to his, and a hand touched his forehead softly. "I'm not asleep, Gedge," he said.

"Ha!" sighed the lad, with a long drawn breath: "getting afraid, sir; you lay so still."

"It's all over, my man," said Bracy wearily.

"No, no; don't say that, sir," cried Gedge. "I was obliged to--"

"Hush! I don't mean that. I only feel now that I can sleep."

"Yes, sir; do, sir. Have a good try."

"I cannot while I know that I have your coat."

"Oh, I don't mind, sir; and I've got to be sentry."

"We want no sentry here, my lad. Take the coat from under me."

"But--"

"Come, obey me now," said Bracy quietly. "Get close to me, then, and cover it over us both."

"You mean that, sir?"

"Yes.--There, my lad, all men are equal at a time like this. I have striven to the last, but Fate has been against me from the first. I give up now."

"I didn't want to run against you, sir; but I was obliged."

"Yes, I suppose so."

"You wouldn't have gone and left me, sir?"

"I don't know," said Bracy slowly.

"I do, sir; I know you wouldn't."

"Let it rest, my lad, and we'll wait for day. G.o.d help the poor creatures at the fort, and G.o.d help us too!"

"Amen!" said Gedge to himself; and as the warmth began to steal through his half-frozen limbs he lay gazing at the distant glow of the enemy's fire far away below, till it grew more and more faint, and then seemed to die right out--seemed, for it was well replenished again and again through the night, and sent up flames and sparks as if to give a signal far away, for the supply of fir-branches was abundant, and the fire rose in spirals up into the frosty sky.

Bracy too lay watching the distant blaze till it grew dim to his half-closed eyes. A calmer feeling of despair had come over him, and the feeling that he had done all that man could do softened the mental agony from which he had suffered. This was to be the end, he felt; and, if ever their remains were found, those who knew them would deal gently with their memory. For the inevitable future stared him blankly in the face. Gedge would strive his utmost to obtain help, but he felt that the poor fellow's efforts would be in vain, and that, if they lived through the night, many hours would not elapse before they perished from hunger and the cold.

The feeling of weary mental confusion that stole over him then was welcome; and, weak from the agony he had suffered, he made an effort to rouse himself from the torpor that, Nature-sent, was lulling the pangs in his injured limb, but let his eyelids droop lower and lower till the distant light was shut out, and then cold, misery, and despair pa.s.sed away, for all was blank.

The specks of golden light were beginning to show on the high peaks, and gradually grew brighter till it was sunny morning far up on the icy eminences, chilly dawn where the two sheepskin-covered figures lay p.r.o.ne, and night still where the fire was blazing by the pine-forest, and the great body of the enemy had bivouacked.

The two motionless figures were covered by a thick rime frost, which looked grey in the dim light, not a crystal as yet sending off a scintillation; and tiny spicules of ice had matted the moustache and beard of Bracy where his breath had condensed during the night, sealing them to the woolly coverlet he had drawn up close; while a strange tingling sensation attacked his eyes as he opened them suddenly, waking from a morning dream of defending the fort and giving orders to his men, who fired volley after volley, which, dream-like, sounded far away.

He was still half-asleep, but involuntarily he raised a warm hand to apply to his eyes. In a very few minutes they were clear, and he began breaking and picking off bit by bit the little icicles from his moustache.

It was strange how it mingled still with his dreams--that firing of volleys; and the half-drowsy thoughts turned to wonder that there should be firing, for he must be awake. Directly after he knew he was, for there was a sharp rattle in the distance, which came rolling and echoing from the face of the great cliff across the gulf, and Gedge jerked himself and said sleepily:

"That's right, boys; let 'em have it."

"Gedge!" cried Bracy hoa.r.s.ely.

"Right, sir; I'm here," was the answer; and the young soldier rolled over from beneath the _poshtin_, rose to his feet, staggered, and sat down again.

"Oh, murder!" he cried. "My poor feet ain't froze hard, are they?"

"I pray not," said Bracy excitedly.

"'Cause I can't stand. But, hallo! sir; what game's this? They're a-firing at us, and coming up over the snow."

"No, no, it can't be!" cried Bracy wildly. "No tribes-men could fire volleys like that."

"Course not, sir. Hoorray! then the Colonel's sent a couple o'

comp'nies to help us."

"Impossible!" cried Bracy. "Hark! there is the reply to the firing.

Yes; and another volley. I almost thought I could see a flash."

"Did yer, sir? Oh, don't talk; do listen, sir. There they go. There must be a big fight going on down there."