Now, at her hour of need, she was buoyed up by a great and wonderful confidence that she could not fail.  Thus far she had accomplished each duty as it had stood before her, and from successes achieved grew the new faith that in to-night’s task, perhaps the supreme and final labour, she would succeed again.  They must have more meat; to-morrow or the next day, at latest, for the steaks which she had eaten and the strong broths to maintain and rebuild strength in.  King had cut deeply into their supply.  And she knew Mark King well enough to be very certain that, the moment he could summon strength enough to command his tottering body to stand on two legs, he would go.  Now, while he was still too weak to observe greatly what went on about him and while he slept most of the time, it was for her to be before him.  Fortunately—­and were not all omens bright with hope?—­it had not snowed since King made his kill; she could follow in the trail he had made and it would lead her unerringly to the spot where he had left the rest of the meat.  She had everything ready, rifle, small packet of food, knife, even matches and strips torn from the sack for her feet.  Down in the gorge, clutching her rifle, she stood looking, listening.  Always the thought of Benny and the other man was on the rim of her consciousness, and fear is a basic and elemental emotion.  But, though the moon set forth all details in clear relief against the snow, there was no man in sight, and, in the intense determination possessing her, she throttled down all fear-thoughts.  She clung with a deep fervour to the thoughts that she and Mark King had put disaster behind them, that ahead lay hope and happiness, that God was with her and about her, and that all danger was gone.  Down the canon she saw the broken, uneven snow where Brodie and his men had left their tracks, irregular trails up which Gratton had come, down which Benny and the Italian had fled.  Upward along the gorge was one deep, straight path, wide and hard packed, the track of Mark King’s crude snow-shoes.  Into this she stepped, thinking even at the time how even Mark King’s trail was characteristic of him and different from that of the other men; it looked purposeful and confident and, like the man himself, driving straight on.  There was a sense of comfort in treading where he had trodden before her.

The world slept, but its quiet breathing she seemed to hear as the air drew through the pines.  She turned up the gorge, a tiny dark figure in an immense white wilderness.  The stars shone and she loved them; they were like bright companionable candles.  The moon shed its soft lustre and she loved it; it thrust shadows back and drove out the dark.  The night was all quiet splendour and peace and serenity.  The snow was crisp, crunching underfoot; sunny days had thawed, clear, cold nights had frozen, and the crust had begun to form.  Before she had gone a dozen feet she discovered this and its importance to her; where King’s weight on the snow-shoes, along a twice-travelled trail, had packed the snow and where now the sun and cold had done their work, there was a crust which upbore her slight weight; she could walk swiftly; there was to be no more floundering.  She could run!