Such a scene so suddenly disclosed, was enough to drive
the sense of danger from my mind; and for a moment I reined in my
horse. But 'Forward, Monsieur!' came the grating order. I fell
to earth again, and went on. What was to be done?
I was at my wits' end to know. The man refused to talk, refused
to ride abreast of me, would have no dismounting, no halting, no
communication at all. He would have nothing but this silent,
lonely procession of two, with the muzzle of his gun at my back.
And meanwhile we were fast climbing the pass. We had left the
others an hour--nearly two. The sun was declining; the time, I
supposed, about half-past three.
If he would only let me come within reach of him! Or if anything
would fall out to take his attention! When the pass presently
widened into a bare and dreary valley, strewn with huge boulders
and with snow lying here and there in the hollows, I looked
desperately before me, and scanned even the vast snow-fields that
overhung us and stretched away to the base of the ice-peak. But
I saw nothing. No bear swung across the path, no izard showed
itself on the cliffs.
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