CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
THE LIGHT THAT CAME.
Gedge knelt there gazing upward, unable to grasp the truth of that whichhe saw; for all around him seemed blacker than ever; but as he lookedthere was another glowing speck high up in the distance, and thenanother and another started into sight, while the first he had seen wenton increasing in brightness; and, as he still kept his eyes fixed uponit, the fact came to him at last--the belief that it was indeed the sunlighting up the glittering peaks of the vast range--and he started tohis feet with a cry of exultation.
"Why, it is to-morrow morning!" he shouted. "Ah! I can help him now."
But for a time he could only wait on patiently, and watch the brightglow extending, and stealing slowly downward, in a way which suggestedthat it would be hours before the spot where he stood would be lit up bythe full light of day; and, hardly daring to move, he listened, andtwice over gave one of his long, piercing whistles, which were echoedand re-echoed in a way which made him shudder and hesitate to raise thestrange sounds again.
"It's o' no use," he said. "He's gone down there, and he's dead--he'sdead; and I shall never see him again.--Yah! yer great snivellingidjit!" he cried the next moment, in his rage against himself. "The oldwoman was right when I 'listed. She said I wasn't fit for a sojer--nogood for nothing but to stop at home, carry back the washing, and turnthe mangle. I'm ashamed o' myself. My word, though, the fog's not sothick, but ain't it cold! If I don't do something I shall freeze hard,and not be able to help him when it gets light."
It was a fact; for, consequent upon standing still so long, a peculiarnumbing sensation began to attack his extremities, and it was none toosoon when he felt his way down the slope for a few yards, and thenturned to climb again. A very short time longer, and he would have beenunable to stir; as it was, he could hardly climb back to the place fromwhich he started. Cut he strove hard to restore the failingcirculation, keeping his body in active motion, till, by slow degrees,his natural activity returned, and, forgetting the weariness produced bysuch a night of exertion, he felt ready to do anything towards findingand rescuing his officer.
"There's no mistake about it," he muttered, "standing still up in theseparts means hands and feet freezing hard. It's wonderful, though, howthese sheepskins keep out the cold. I ought to feel worse than I do,though, at a time like this; but it's because I won't believe thegov'nor's dead. It ain't possible, like, for it's so much more suddenthan being caught by a bullet through the heart. Oh he ain't dead--hecan't be--I won't believe it. Tumbled down into the soft snowsomewhere, and on'y wants me to go down and help him out."
He took another turn up and down to keep up the circulation, and by thistime he could move about freely, and without having to climb the ascentin dread of going too far and reaching the perilous edge, with itstreachery of snow.
"Getting lighter fast," he said, "and I shall be able to get to worksoon. And that's it. I've got to think o' that. There's no help to begot. You've got to find all the help in yourself, old man. My! ain'tit beautiful how the light's coming! It's just as if the angels waspouring glory on the tops o' the mountains, and it's running more andmore down the sides, till these great holes and hollows are full, andit's day once more."
As the golden rays of sunshine came lower, the mountain in front grewdazzling in its beauty. Minute by minute the glaciers which combed itssides leaped into sight, shining with dazzling beauty, like rivers andfalls of golden water; the dark rifts and chasms became purple,lightening into vivid blue; and the reflected light kept on flashingupon hollows and points, till, saving the lower portions, the vast massof tumbled-together ice and snow shone with a glory that filled theignorant common lad with a strange feeling of awe.
This passed off directly, however; and, as the darkness on a level withwhere he stood grew more and more transparent, Gedge's active mind wassearching everything in the most practical way, in connection with thetask he had in hand. He could see now dimly that the snow to right andleft of him curved over the vast gulf in front--vast in length only;for, thirty or forty yards from where he stood, there was the huge blankface of the mountain going downward, as one vast perpendicular wall ofgrey rock, streaked with snow where there were ledges for it to cling.In fact, the snow from above hung hen; and there as if ready to fallinto the black gulf, still full of darkness, and whose depths could notbe plumbed until the light displaced the gloom, and a safe coign ofvantage could be found from which the adventurer could look down.
In fact, the young soldier was on the edge of a stupendous_bergschrund_, as the phenomenon is termed by Swiss climbers--a deepchasm formed by the ice and snow shrinking or falling away from the sideof a mountain, where the latter is too steep for it to cling. And then,after a little examination to right and left, Gedge, with beating heart,found the place where Bracy had stepped forward and instantaneouslyfallen. There was no doubt about it, for the searcher found the twospots where he himself had so nearly gone down, the snow showing greatirregular patches, bitten off, as it were, leaving sharp, rugged,perpendicular edges; while where Bracy had fallen there were twofootprints and a deep furrow, evidently formed by the rifle, to which hehad clung, the furrow growing deeper as it neared the edge of the snow,through which it had been dragged.
Gedge's face flushed with excitement as he grasped all this and provedits truth, for, between where he stood and the footprints made throughthe crust of snow, there were his own marks, those made by his bayonet,and others where he had flung himself down, for the snow here was farsofter than upon the slope.
In spite of the darkness still clinging to the depths, Gedge began atonce searching for a safe place--one where he could crawl to the edge ofthe gulf, get his face over, and look down; but anywhere near whereBracy had gone down this was in vain, for the snow curved over like somehuge volute of glittering whiteness, and several times over, when heventured, it was to feel that his weight was sufficient to make the snowyield, sending him back with a shudder.
Baffled again and again, he looked to right and left, in search of someslope by whose means he could descend into the gulf; but he looked invain--everywhere the snow hung over, and as the light increased he sawthat the curve was far more than he had imagined.
"Oh, if I only knowed what to do!" he groaned. "I can't seem to helphim; and I can't leave him to go for help. I must get down somehow; butI dursen't jump."
This last thought had hardly crossed his brain when a feeling of wildexcitement rushed through him; for faintly heard from far away below,and to his left, there came the shrill chirruping note of an officer'swhistle, and Gedge snatched at the spike of his helmet, plucked it off,and waved it frantically in the air.
"Hoorray!" he yelled. "Hoorray! and I don't care if any one hears me.Hoorray! He ain't dead a bit; he's down somewhere in the soft snow, andhoorray! I'm going to get him out."
At that moment the whistle chirruped faint and shrill again, the notebeing repeated from the vast wall.
"He's this side somewhere," cried Gedge. "Out o' sight under thiscurl-over o' snow. There he goes again, and I haven't answered. Of allthe--"
The cramming of his fingers into his mouth checked the speech, and,blowing with all his might, the young soldier sent forth a shrillimitation of the officer's whistle, to echo from the mountain face; andthen, unmistakably, and no echo, came another faint, shrill whistle fromfar to the left.
"All right, Mr Bracy, sir! Hoorray! and good luck to you! I'ma-coming."
He whistled again, and went off in the direction from which his summonsseemed to have come, and again he was answered, and again and again,till, quite a quarter of a mile along the edge, the young soldierstopped, for the whistles had sounded nearer and nearer, till he feltconvinced that he had reached a spot on the snow hanging just above hissummoner's head.
As he stopped he whistled again, and the answer sounded shrill and near.
"Below there! Ahoy!" he yelled, and mingling with the echoes came hisname, faintly heard, but i
n the familiar tones.
"Oh dear! What's a chap to do?" panted Gedge. "I want to holler andshout, and dance a 'ornpipe. Here, I feel as if I'm goin' as mad as ahatter. Hi! Oh, Mr Bracy--sir--ain't--half--dead--are--yer?" heshouted, as if he had punctuated his words with full stops.
"Not--much--hurt," came up distinctly.
"Then here goes!" muttered Gedge. "I must try and get a look at yer, tosee where yer are."
The speaker threw himself on his faces once more, and began to crawltowards the edge of the cornice, to look down into the fairly-lightchasm; but shrank back only just in time to save himself from going downwith a great patch of snow; and he listened, shudderingly, to the dullrush it made, followed by a heavy pat and a series of whispering echoes.Then faintly heard came the words: "Keep back, or you'll send anavalanche down."
"What's a haverlarnsh?" muttered Gedge. Then aloud, "All right, sir.Can yer get out?"
"I don't know yet. I must rest a bit. Don't talk, or you'll be sendingthe snow down."
"All right, sir; but can't yer tell me what to do?"
"You can do nothing," came slowly back in distinct tones. "The snowcurves over my head, and there is a tremendous depth. Keep still whereyou are, and don't come near."
"Oh, I can keep still now," said Gedge coolly. "It's like being anotherman to know that's he's all alive. Oh! can't be very much hurt, or hewouldn't call like he does. Poor chap! But what's he going to do?Climb up the side somehow? Well, I s'pose I must obey orders; but Ishould like to be doing something to help him out."
Gedge was of that type which cannot remain quiet; and, feeling irritatednow by his enforced state of helplessness, he spent the time in lookingdown and around him for signs of danger.
The sun was now above the horizon, lighting up the diversified scene atthe foot of the mountain, and away along the valleys spreading to rightand left; but for some time he could make out nothing save a few specksin the far distance, which might have been men, or a flock of somecreatures pasturing on the green valley-side, miles beyond thetermination of the snow-slope up which they had climbed. He made out,too, the continuation of the stony track leading to the head of thevalley, and along which the party of tribes-men had been seen to pass;but there was apparently nothing there, and Gedge drew a breath full ofrelief as he felt how safe they were, and beyond the reach of the enemy.
Then, turning to the gulf again, he went as near as he dared to theedge, and stood listening to a dull sound, which was frequentlyrepeated, and was followed by a low rushing noise, which kept gatheringin force till it was like a heavy rush, and then dying away.
"What's he doing?" muttered Gedge. "Sounds like digging. That's it;he's been buried alive; and he's hard at work trying to dig himself outof the snow with his bayonet stuck at the end of his rifle. Well, goodluck to him. Wonder where he'll come up first."
Gedge watched the cornice-like edge of the snowfield as the sounds as ofsome one feebly digging went on; but he could gain no further hint ofwhat was going on, and at last his excitement proved too much for him,and he once more began to creep towards the edge of the snow, getting sofar without accident this time that he could form an idea of what mustbe the depth from seeing far down the grey face of the wall of rock,certainly four or five hundred feet, but no bottom.
"He couldn't have fallen all that way," he said to himself. "It must godown with a slope on this side."
A sharp crack warned him that he was in danger, and he forced himselfback on to firm snow, receiving another warning of the peril to which hehad exposed himself, for a portion many feet square went down with ahissing rush, to which he stood listening till all was still once more.
Suddenly he jumped back farther, for from somewhere higher up there wasa heavy report as of a cannon, followed by a loud echoing roar, and,gazing upward over a shoulder of the mountain, he had a good view ofwhat seemed to be a waterfall plunging over a rock, to disappearafterwards behind a buttress-like mass of rock and ice. This wasfollowed by another roar, and another, before all was still again.
"Must be ice and snow," he said to himself; "can't be water."
Gedge was right; for he had been gazing up at an ice-fall, whose dropswere blocks and masses of ice diminished into dust by the greatdistance, and probably being formed of thousands of tons.
"Bad to have been climbing up there," he muttered, and he shrank alittle farther away from the edge of the great chasm. "It's precioushorrid being all among this ice and snow. It sets me thinking, as italways does when I've nothing to do.--If I could only do something tohelp him, instead of standing here.--Oh, I say," he cried wildly, "lookat that!"
He had been listening to the regular dull dig, dig, dig, going on belowthe cornice, and to the faint rushing sound, as of snow falling,thinking deeply of his own helplessness the while, wondering too, forthe twentieth time, where Bracy would appear, when, to his intenseastonishment, he saw a bayonet dart through the snow into daylight abouttwenty feet back from the edge of the great gulf.
The blade disappeared again directly, and reappeared rapidly two orthree times as he ran towards the spot, and then hesitated, for it wasdangerous to approach the hole growing in the snow, the direction of thethrusts made being various, and the risk was that the weapon might bedarted into the looker-on. Gedge stood then as near as he dared go,watching the progress made by the miner, and seeing the hole rapidlyincrease in size as the surface crumbled in.
Then all at once Gedge's heart seemed to leap towards his mouth, forthere was a sudden eddy of the loose snow, as if some one werestruggling, the bayonet, followed by the rifle, was thrust out intodaylight, held by a pair of hands which sought to force it crosswiseover the mouth of the hole, and the next instant the watcher saw why.For the caked snow from the opening to the edge of the gulf, and formany yards on either side, was slowly sinking; while, starting from thehole in two opposite directions, and keeping parallel with the edge; ofthe cornice, a couple of cracks appeared, looking like dark jaggedlines.
It was a matter of but a few moments. Gedge had had his lessonsregarding the curving-over snow, and knew the danger, which gave him theapt promptitude necessary for action in the terrible peril.
Dropping his own rifle on the ice, he sprang forward, stooped, and,quick as a flash, caught hold of the barrel of the rifle lying on thesurface just below the hilt of the bayonet. Then throwing himself backwith all the force he could command, he literally jerked Bracy out fromwhere he lay buried in the loose snow and drew him several yards rapidlyover the smooth surface. The long lines were opening out and gaping thewhile, and he had hardly drawn his officer clear before there was asoft, dull report, and a rush, tons of the cornice having beenundermined where it hung to the edge of the icefield, and now wentdownward with a hissing sound, which was followed by a dull roar.
"Ah-h-h!" groaned Gedge, and he dropped down upon his knees beside theprostrate snowy figure, jerked his hands towards his face, and then fellover sidewise, to lie motionless with his eyes fast closed.
When he opened them again it was to see Bracy kneeling by his side andbending over him, the young officer's countenance looking blue andswollen, while his voice when he spoke sounded husky and faint.
"Are you better now?" he said.
"Better!" replied Gedge hoarsely as he stared confusedly at the speaker."Ain't been ill agen, have I! Here, what yer been doing to make myhead ache like this here? I--I--I d' know. Something's buzzing, and myhead's going round. Some one's been giving me--Oh, Mr Bracy, sir! Iremember now. Do tell me, sir; are yer all right?"
"Yes, nearly," replied the young officer, with a weary smile. "Twistedmy ankle badly, and I'm faint and sick. I can't talk."
"Course not, sir; but you're all right again now. You want something toeat. I say, sir, did you finish your rations?"
"No; they're here in my haversack. You can take a part if you wantsome."
"Me, sir? I've got plenty. Ain't had nothing since when we had ourfeed together. I ain't touched
nothing."
"Eat, then; you must want food."
"Yes, I am a bit peckish, sir, I s'pose; but I can't eat 'less you do."
Bracy smiled faintly, and began to open his snow-covered haversack,taking from it a piece of hard cake, which he began to eat very slowly,looking hard and strange of manner, a fact which did not escape Gedge'seyes; but the latter said nothing, opened his canvas bag with tremblinghands, and began to eat in a hurried, excited way, but soon left off.
"Don't feel like eating no more, sir," he said huskily. "Can't forthinking about how you got on. Don't say nothing till you feel wellenough, sir. I can see that you're reg'lar upset. Ain't got froze,have you--hands or feet?"
"No, no," said Bracy slowly, speaking like one suffering from someterrible shock. "I did not feel the cold so much. There, I am cominground, my lad, and I can't quite grasp yet that I am sitting here alivein the sunshine. I'm stunned. It is as if I were still in thathorrible dream-like time of being face to face with death. Ha! how goodit is to feel the sun once more!"
"Yes, sir; capital, sir," said Gedge more cheerfully. "Quite puzzlingto think its all ice and snow about us. Shines up quite warm; 'most aswarm as it shines down."
"Ha!" sighed Bracy; "it sends life into me again."
He closed his eyes, and seemed to be drinking in the warm glow, whichwas increasing fast, giving colour to the magnificent view around. Butafter a few minutes, during which Gedge sat munching slowly and gazinganxiously in the strangely swollen and discoloured face, the eyes werereopened, to meet those of Gedge, who pretended to be looking anotherway.
The sun's warmth was working wonders, and shortly after Bracy's voicesounded stronger as he said quietly:
"It would have been hard if I had been carried back by the snow at thelast, Gedge."
"Hard, sir? Horrid."
"It turned you sick afterwards--the narrow escape I had."
"Dreadful, sir. I was as bad as a gal. I'm a poor sort o' thingsometimes, sir. But don't you talk till you feel all right, sir."
"I am beginning to feel as if talking will do me good and spur me backinto being more myself."
"Think so, sir? Well, you know best, sir."
"I think so," said Bracy quietly; "but I shall not be right till I havehad a few hours' sleep."
"Look here, then, sir; you lie down in the sun here on my _poshtin_.I'll keep watch."
"No! no! Not till night. There, I am getting my strength back. I wascompletely stunned, Gedge, and I have been acting like a man walking inhis sleep."
Gedge kept glancing at his officer furtively, and there was an anxiouslook in his eyes as he said to himself:
"He's like a fellow going to have a touch of fever. Bit wandering-like,poor chap! I know what's wrong. I'll ask him."
He did not ask at once, though, for he saw that Bracy was eating thepiece of cake with better appetite, breaking off scraps more frequently;while the food, simple as it was, seemed to have a wonderfully revivingeffect, and he turned at last to his companion.
"You are not eating, my lad," he said, smiling faintly. "Come, you knowwhat you have said to me."
"Oh, I'm all right again now, sir; I'm only keeping time with you.There. Dry bread-cake ain't bad, sir, up here in the mountains, whenyou're hungry. Hurt your head a bit--didn't you, sir?"
"No, no," said Bracy more firmly. "My right ankle; that is all. Howhorribly sudden it was!"
"Awful, sir; but don't you talk."
"I must now; it does me good, horrible as it all was; but, as I tellyou, I was stunned mentally and bodily, to a great extent. I must havedropped a great distance into the soft snow upon a slope, and I was along time before I could get rid of the feeling of being suffocated. Iwas quite buried, I suppose; but at last, in a misty way, I seemed to bebreathing the cold air in great draughts as I lay on the snow, holdingfast to my rifle, which somehow seemed to be the one hope I had ofgetting back to you."
"You did a lot of good with it, sir."
"Did I?"
"Course you did, sir. Digging through the snow."
"Oh yes, I remember now," said Bracy, with a sigh. "Yes, I rememberhaving some idea that the snow hung above me like some enormous wavecurling right over before it broke, and then becoming frozen hard. ThenI remember feeling that I was like one of the rabbits in the sandhillsat home, burrowing away to make a hole to get to the surface, and asfast as I got the sand down from above me I kept on kicking it out withmy feet, and it slid away far below with a dull, hissing sound."
"Yes, sir, I heard it; but that was this morning. How did you get on inthe night, after you began to breathe again? You couldn't ha' beenburied long, or you'd ha' been quite smothered."
"Of course," said Bracy rather vacantly--"in the night?"
"Yes; didn't you hear me hollering?"
"No."
"When you were gone all in a moment I thought you'd slipped and gonesliding down like them chaps do the tobogganing, sir."
"You did call to me, then?"
"Call, sir? I expect that made me so hoarse this morning."
"I did not hear you till I whistled and you answered, not long ago."
"Why, I whistled too, sir, lots o' times, and nigh went mad withthinking about you."
"Thank you, Gedge," said Bracy quietly, and he held out his hand andgripped his companion's warmly. "I give you a great deal of trouble."
"Trouble, sir? Hark at you! That ain't trouble. But after you got outof the snow?"
"After I got out of the snow?"
"Yus, sir; you was there all night."
"Was I? Yes, I suppose so. I must have been. But I don't know much.It was all darkness and snow, and--oh yes, I remember now! I did notdare to move much, because whenever I did stir I began to glide down asif I were going on for ever."
"But don't you remember, sir, any more than that?"
"No," said Bracy, speaking with greater animation now. "As I told you,I must have been stunned by my terrible fall, and that saved me from atime of agony that would have driven me mad. As soon as it was light Imust have begun moving in a mechanical way to try and escape from thatterrible death-trap: but all that has been dream-like, and--and I feelas if I were still in a kind of nightmare. I am quite faint, too, andgiddy with pain. Yes, I must lie down here in the sunshine for a bit.Don't let me sleep long if I drop off."
"No, sir; I won't, sir," replied Gedge, as Bracy sank to his elbow andthen subsided with a restful sigh, lying prone upon the snow.
"He's fainted! No, he ain't; he's going right off to sleep. Not lethim sleep long? Yes, I will; I must, poor chap! It's knocked half thesense out of him, just when he was done up, too. Not sleep? Why,that's the doctor as'll pull him round. All right, sir; you're going tohave my sheepskin too, and you ain't going to be called till the sun'sgoing down, and after that we shall see."
Ten minutes later Bracy was sleeping, carefully wrapped in Gedge's_poshtin_, while the latter was eating heartily of the remains of hisrations.
"And he might ha' been dead, and me left alone!" said Gedge, speaking tohimself. "My! how soon things change! Shall I have a bit more, orshan't I! Yes; I can't put my greatcoat on outside, so I must put someextra lining in."