Barnett at last acquiesced in the relinquishment of his desire of
rescue. Some losses must needs occur in a great trade, and considering
the stress of the weather, the long distances traversed, the dangers of
the lonely wildernesses in the territory of savages, the incident would
doubtless be leniently overlooked. And then he bethought himself of the
horse,--a good horse, stout, swift, kindly disposed; a hard fate the
animal had encountered,--abandoned here to starve in these bleak winter
woods. Perhaps he might be lying there at the foot of the cliffs with a
broken leg, suffering the immeasurable agonies of a dumb beast, for the
lack of a merciful pistol-ball to put him at peace. Barnett could not
resist the mute appeal of his fancy.

Presently he was trudging alone along the icy path. The flare of the red
fire grew dim behind him; the last flicker faded. The woods were all
unillumined, ghastly white, with a hovering gray shadow. The song of the
bivouac fainted in the distance and failed; the echo grew doubtful and
dull; and now in absolute silence that somehow set his nerves aquiver he
was coming in with the dreary dusk and the driving snow to the old
"waste town," Nilaque Great.

More silent even than the wilderness it seemed with the muffling drifts
heavy on the roofs, blocking the dark open doors of the tenantless
dwellings, lying in fluffy masses on the boughs of the trees that had
once made the desert spaces so pleasantly umbrageous in those sweet
summers so long ago. The great circular council-house, shaped like a
dome, was whitely aglimmer against the gray twilight and the wintry
background of the woods and mountains,--only the vaguest suggestions of
heights seen through the ceaseless whirl of the crystalline flakes. No
wolf now, although remembering the casual glimpse he had had he was