CHAPTER XVIII
FACING THE END
Below the hill on one side flickered the moving torches of thehostiles. On the other side, where the cliff fell sheer away, lay thered-dyed snows with misty shapes moving through the frosty valley.
A wind of sighs swept across the white wastes. Short, sharp barkingsrose from the shadowy depth of the ravine. Then the silence ofdesolation . . . then the moaning night-wind . . . then the shiveringcry of the wolf-pack scouring on nightly hunt.
For a moment neither Godefroy nor I spoke. Then the sinews, cuttingdeep, wakened consciousness.
"Are they gone?" asked Godefroy hoarsely.
"Yes," said I, glancing to the valley.
"Can't you break through the thongs and get a hand free?"
"My back is to the tree. We'll have to face it, Godefroy--don't breakdown, man! We must face it!"
"Face what?" he shuddered out. "Is anything there? Face what?" hehalf screamed.
"The end!"
He strained at the thongs till he had strength to strain no more. Thenhe broke out in a volley of maledictions at Jack Battle and me forinterfering with the massacre, to which I could answer never a word;for the motives that merit greatest applause when they succeed, winbitterest curses when they fail.
The northern lights swung low. Once those lights seemed censers offlame to an invisible God. Now they shot across the steel sky likefiery serpents, and the rustling of their fire was as the hiss when afang strikes. A shooting star blazed into light against the blue, thendropped into the eternal darkness.
"Godefroy," I asked, "how long will this last?"
"Till the wolves come," said he huskily.
"A man must die some time," I called back; but my voice belied thebravery of the words, for something gray loomed from the ravine andstood stealthily motionless in the dusk behind the trader.Involuntarily a quick "Hist!" went from my lips.
"What's that?" shouted Godefroy. "Is anything there?"
"I am cold," said I.
And on top of that lie I prayed--prayed with wide-staring eyes on thething whose head had turned towards us--prayed as I have never prayedbefore or since!
"Are you sure there's nothing?" cried the trader. "Look on both sides!I'm sure I feel something!"
Another crouching form emerged from the gloom--then another andanother--silent and still as spectres. With a sidling motion theyprowled nearer, sniffing the air, shifting watchful look from Godefroyto me, from me to Godefroy. A green eye gleamed nearer through themist. Then I knew.
The wolves had come.
Godefroy screamed out that he heard something, and again bade me lookon both sides of the hill.
"Keep quiet till I see," said I; but I never took my gaze from thegreen eyes of a great brute to the fore of the gathering pack.
"But I feel them--but I hear them!" shouted Godefroy, in an agony ofterror.
What gain to keep up pretence longer? Still holding the beast backwith no other power than the power of the man's eye over the brute, Icalled out the truth to the trader.
"Don't move! Don't speak! Don't cry out! Perhaps we can stare themback till daylight comes!"
Godefroy held quiet as death. Some subtle power of the man over thebrute puzzled the leader of the pack. He shook his great head withangry snarls and slunk from side to side to evade the human eye, everyhair of his fur bristling. Then he threw up his jaws and uttered along howl, answered by the far cry of the coming pack. Sniffing theground, he began circling--closing in--closing in----
Then there was a shout--a groan, a struggle--a rip as of teeth--fromGodefroy's place!
Then with naught but a blazing of comets dropping into an everlastingdark, with naught but a ship of fire billowing away to the flame of thenorthern lights, with naught but the rush of a sea, blinding,deafening, bearing me to the engulfment of the eternal--I lostknowledge of this life!