that widened and grew faint and died out in the river below.
“Now sorra a bit of sheep will we be takin’ off of that shoulder this great while,” he said. “An’ it’s bad it’ll be for anny misfort’nit crathur what we left there. But will we git off out of that befure another will be comin’, I wonder?”
Scott heard it, and fear caught, him by the nape of the neck. He wheeled, saw the tail-end of it, and began to run. A straight-flung stone fleshed his ear, and he blinked up at Steve, blocked out on the scarp above. Then a greater fear caught Scott. For payment for all things would be required in camp this night, and there would be Ted Douglas to face after. He dropped back sullenly, swarming up the lean ridge before him with the wet wind cutting his eyes and chilled hands.
Among the rotten rock and the flint and mica where the lightning zipped and the rain gallopped down in deep channels, Lou was finding purer joy than had been his since the day that broke him in open square before two troops of Irregulars and one Home regiment. For always a brave man loves to stand up to a force that is greater than he. Ted Douglas heard the slip, and a pain beyond body-weariness set in his face. Quite certainly he knew that the sheep must have got back on them, again and yet again, though each man did his
