Essential Novelists - Bret Harte. Bret Harte

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СКАЧАТЬ not mean to frighten you, Grace, but only to show you what we must avoid—what we have still strength left to avoid. There is but one chance of escape; you know what it is—a desperate one, but no more desperate than this passive waiting for a certain end. I ask you again—will you share it with me? When I first spoke I was less sanguine than now. Since then I have explored the ground carefully, and studied the trend of these mountains. It is possible. I say no more."

      "But my sister and brother?"

      "The child would be a hopeless impediment, even if she could survive the fatigue and exposure. Your brother must stay with her; she will need all his remaining strength and all the hopefulness that keeps him up. No, Grace, we must go alone. Remember, our safety means theirs. Their strength will last until we can send relief; while they would sink in the attempt to reach it with us. I would go alone, but I cannot bear, dear Grace, to leave you here."

      "I should die if you left me," she said, simply.

      "I believe you would, Grace," he said as simply.

      "But can we not wait? Help may come at any moment—to-morrow."

      "To-morrow will find us weaker. I should not trust your strength nor my own a day longer."

      "But the old man—the Doctor?"

      "He will soon be beyond the reach of help," said the young man, sadly. "Hush, he is moving."

      One of the blanketed figures had rolled over. Philip walked to the fire, threw on a fresh stick, and stirred the embers. The upspringing flash showed the face of an old man whose eyes were fixed with feverish intensity upon him.

      "What are you doing with the fire?" he asked querulously, with a slight foreign accent.

      "Stirring it!"

      "Leave it alone!"

      Philip listlessly turned away.

      "Come here," said the old man.

      Philip approached.

      "You need say nothing," said the old man after a pause, in which he examined Philip's face keenly. "I read your news in your face—the old story—I know it by heart."

      "Well?" said Philip.

      "Well!" said the old man, stolidly.

      Philip again turned away.

      "You buried the case and papers?" asked the old man.

      "Yes."

      "Through the snow—in the earth?"

      "Yes."

      "Securely?"

      "Securely."

      "How do you indicate it?"

      "By a cairn of stones."

      "And the notices—in German and French?"

      "I nailed them up wherever I could, near the old trail."

      "Good."

      The cynical look on Philip's face deepened as he once more turned away. But before he reached the door he paused, and drawing from his breast a faded flower, with a few limp leaves, handed it to the old man.

      "I found the duplicate of the plant you were looking for."

      The old man half rose on his elbow, breathless with excitement as he clutched and eagerly examined the plant.

      "It is the same," he said, with a sigh of relief, "and yet you said there was no news!"

      "May I ask what it means?" said Philip, with a slight smile.

      "It means that I am right, and Linnæus, Darwin, and Eschscholtz are wrong. It means a discovery. It means that this which you call an Alpine flower is not one, but a new species."

      "An important fact to starving men," said Philip, bitterly.

      "It means more," continued the old man, without heeding Philip's tone. "It means that this flower is not developed in perpetual snow. It means that it is first germinated in a warm soil and under a kindly sun. It means that if you had not plucked it, it would have fulfilled its destiny under those conditions. It means that in two months grass will be springing where you found it—even where we now lie. We are below the limit of perpetual snow."

      "In two months!" said the young girl, eagerly, clasping her hands.

      "In two months," said the young man, bitterly. "In two months we shall be far from here, or dead."

      "Probably!" said the old man, coolly; "but if you have fulfilled my injunctions in regard to my papers and the collection, they will in good time be discovered and saved."

      Ashley turned away with an impatient gesture, and the old man's head again sank exhaustedly upon his arm. Under the pretext of caressing the child, Ashley crossed over to Grace, uttered a few hurried and almost inaudible words, and disappeared through the door. When he had gone, the old man raised his head again and called feebly—

      "Grace!"

      "Dr. Devarges!"

      "Come here!"

      She rose and crossed over to his side.

      "Why did he stir the fire, Grace?" said Devarges, with a suspicious glance.

      "I don't know."

      "You tell him everything—did you tell him that?"

      "I did not, sir."

      Devarges looked as if he would read the inmost thoughts of the girl, and then, as if reassured, said—

      "Take it from the fire, and let it cool in the snow."

      The young girl raked away the embers of the dying fire, and disclosed what seemed to be a stone of the size of a hen's egg incandescent and glowing. With the aid of two half-burnt slicks she managed to extract it, and deposited it in a convenient snow-drift near the door, and then returned to the side of the old man.

      "Grace!"

      "Sir!"

      "You are going away!"

      Grace did not speak.

      "Don't deny it. I overheard you. Perhaps it is the best that you can do. But whether it is or not you will do it—of course. Grace, what do you know of that man?"

      Neither the contact of daily familiarity, the quality of suffering, nor the presence of approaching death, could subdue the woman's nature in Grace. She instantly raised her shield. From behind it she began to fence feebly with the dying man.

      "Why, what we all know of him, sir—a true friend; a man to whose courage, intellect, and endurance we owe so much. And so unselfish, sir!"

      "Humph!—what СКАЧАТЬ