Chapter II.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4579, 27 February 1893, Page 1

Chapter 11.

Through that long day the men kept close 1 iiltliin: the ; little room ■'-. whodS^chill dimness was. -'..^^wdi^ied their, cold fingers. During the foie- - noon they, had horned tyro' lamps,- but as three o'clock struck, with : rather an increase thah an abatement of the atorm, Brown extinguished one. . . "Why?" asked Vol. '.' We aie low down in our supply, and I would rather have little light than no light in this Bedlam.". "Do you think ifc will blow much longer?" "I've known some of its kin that have howled and hooted for near upon' a week. ■Vai grasped his crutch and strode to the door, but the- other interposed bis burly figure, with unwonted agility. "Come, come, lad! . This is too early in the business to lose your wits ! " he exclaimed with a grip that, was like a kindly vice. Fletcher is only two miles——" '.'.Which means too far ! " Brown interrupted, punning with a cheery* atrocity that deserved ' respect in the circumstances. " Too far for my pair of legs, and all the arithmetic beyond your one. See here youngster, we will have a game of cards and, — and it ain't against, my (.ohscience to play for quarters, if that will keep your spirits up!" The concession meant much from this old "blue light," under whose rule, as corporal in barracks and as master in the station, cards, except for the "rigour of the game," were for* bidden ob a snare of Satan; but it was one which Vol, feeling both his endurance and hia magnanimity appealed to, would not accept. They compromised presently upon a harmless ' rubber of whist with doublo. dummies, which agreeably diversified such reading as was .possible in a library that consisted of Brown's bible, a volume on company-drill, and Vol's well-thumbed telegraphio manual. " Chaps have beon frozen stiff between their house and their born when they have gone to tend their cattle in just such amaze of enow as this," the elder man said after a time, while he shuffled for a new deal. " Nothing but prairie creatures can live in a blizzard ; and, when the Lord withdraws the scourge from us, there will be many a poor beast of a buffalo and prairiedog What's that ?"' ' ,

That was a new sound, distinct amid the aorieks of the storm and. the cracking of the house.timbeTs from intense cold. It was a low cry, very noar to. have reached them through auch a tumult of sound, a cry which both men knew instinctively wns not uttered by any sjtormdriven animm.

V»l sprang upright, forgetting his crutch, and, as he dropped helplessly back, Brown hurriedly -carried the lamp into the telegraph-office, whence a broad beam of light fell across the larger room, ..and whore the onslaught of tho wind, which would .ollowthe opening of the door, might po3Bibly not extinguish it. "Now, Vai," he oriad,. "sithere behind tho door, and push against ifcwbeti.l h_-do ,; the holts.;- .0 if we are lucky, ifc 'yri)i not, bo blown from its hinges.' Ah——-!"

The door escaped from his hold with a violence which just failed to upset Valj whose muscular frame waa well braced; while Brown fell on his knees in unwilling homage to the majesty of the hurricane which rushed upon them, flinging before it the body of a man who pitched forward beyond tbe threshold and lay motionless.

Brown loapt to Val's side, and the next moment the two stood panting, with their backs against. the closed door, gazing at the prostrate figure. Vai moved first, and, kneeling, turned the heavy shoulders and head to look down into a deathlike face. He had seen men die in that Indian fight which had marred his own life, but death had not then smitten him with the compassion which its image now stirred in his heart. "He is dead!" he gasped.

" I guess not," the other answered, lifting one of the clenched, icy hands. " And if he is, youngs'er, you and I ain't so much better off that you need look so desperate pitiful." But he looked pitiful enough himself, in spite of his roughness, as, finding no pulse, be began to open the fur coat and inner garments. " Bring the whisky!" he muttered presently, as his fingers found the faint beating heart for which he was searching. " Cheer up, Vai ! He's alive, and we will not let Sing Blizzard have him this time!"

It was aftor a long half hour of vigorous rubbing, and many a lamentation on the absence offire, hot flannels, and nearly all the necessaries for resuscitation, that the stranger stirrod, sighed, and opened hia eyes. Vory big and black and bewiitlerod they stared up out of hi. white face; and the fij-.t gleam that came into them was not of thankfulness but of defiance, as one shaking hand fumbled at his belt.

" I've taken them away," Brown answered that look and gesture with a grin of mingled pity and amusement; "Yoit will not want your pistols with us, my poor chap, though you will need pretty near everything else, if this blizzard don't better soon ! "

" The blizzard ? " the stranger whispered, while his eyes grew wistful. "I. tried to reach a light, You saved me P "

" Don't you be top thankful yet! We may all three be as bad, or worse, before we can talk about. safety," Brown answered grimly. "But we will do the best we cnn for you, even to another drink of whiskey, though there is mighty little left. ' Then you can tell us your story."

"My story ! " the other repeated with a queer twist of his pale lips; and when they had half carried, half propelled him as far as the only easy, chaif in the place, he began not to relate but to question.

Men in so threatening a predicament as his hosts are , willing enough to expatiate upon itß details, and they put the situation very vividly before him without pressing for the history of his adventures. It was some subtle change of expression in his dark eyes, as Vai, who had been the chief talker, ceased speaking, which caused Brown to say with a laugh that was not merry : " You don't think you have quite so much to be grateful for as you aid a while ago ? "

" That you are . willing to make privation more ent_r_, and to bring starvation nearer for my sake, does not appear to me a reason for ingratitude," the stranger answered, with a smile, which, swiftly as it passed warmed the hearts of the others as it went. Then very briefly he told them that he had started on hordeback alone from a ranch (whioh he did not name) just before tho snow had begun to fall on the previous night, and that when the wind roso he had been no further from the station than the nearest railway culvert some two hundred yards away. This culvert did not open to the direct sweep of the storm, and for several hours had proved a -tolerable Bh .lterfbr-binraelf and hia horse jTbut at length the animal, impatient with cold and hunger, and frightened by the increasing uproar, had escaped from his hold and made off across the prairie. Fora couple of hours longer he had remained, until, realizing that this refuge was becoming a special danger from the accumulation of snow drifted into it by a change in the wind, he had desperately stumbled out upon the open waste; and only after wanderings that seemed' endlesß to hia failing strength had he made his way to those lights which, through, same shifting eddy of the blizzard, he saw flash from between the chinks of the closed shutters at the tation, of whose near neighbourhood he had been ignorant. Who he was he did not tell his hosts, nor did they ask him, as they watched him with, a curiosity which the meagreness of his story had by no means satisfied. He shut his eyes as he finished speakings and lay baok in the big armchair with Ms dark brows drawn together in a frown of pain. That he was a gentleman they both deoided with an instinctive glance from hb slender though muscular hands to their own stalwart fists; and a gentleman who had failed to find in the west the fortune he had come there to seek, they decided with equally silent unanihrity, asthey -, contrasted 'his well-cut though ahobby clothfes with' their own rough-and-ready dress.

Histories and mysteries, however, ore common enough in Montana, and the hospitality of the prairie is as unquestioning as that of the desert. Brown rose, brought the solitary can of corn beef and the last half loaf from the cupboard, and, having divided three rigidly equal portions, he carefully put away the remainder and, announced supper. With the quiescence of utter exhaustion their guest accepted his share of the scanty meal, and allowed Brown to help him to bed in his own room.

"Just dead beat!" Vai exclaimed as his friend rejoined him. " Lucky that he got a glimpse of the chinks in these shutters, — wonderfully lucky through such a mist of snow 1"

" Hot much luck for us," Brown replied gloomily.

" Why, what do you think him ?"

"That don't concern us while he is frozen and famished. What does concern you and me is, that slim rations for two of us, if this blizzard lasts forty-eight hourd, means starvation for three of us inside of thirty-six !"

There was silence — such silence as made the howling tempest outside sound toVal's thrilling ears like the clamour of wolves eager for their prey. He was hungry, he was cold, he was tired ; for an instant he turned sick ais he confronted that dark figure at which earth's boldest eyes cannot look undismayed; but youth refuses to recognise despair, even when face to face with it. He held out hiß hand to Brown with a l|ugh that was almost natural. " You old Job's comforter .'"he cried as they clasped each other's chill fingers. " Such a hurricane as this cannot last much longer. You go to bed for two or three hours, then I'll take my turn, and by breakfast. time there will bo such a jolly sun shining that we can eat tho whole of our supplies at one meal!"

" Without feeling overfed, anyhow," Brown grumbled ; but he agreed to the plan, and between watching and sleeping they got through the night.

(To be continued.)