Silence fell; and in it, though he dared not look, coward Tom Blair fancied he heard a movement, imagined the other man about to put the threat into execution.
"No, no!" he pleaded. "People are different--different as day and night. You belong to your mother's kind, and she was good and pure." Every trace of the man's nerve was gone. But one instinct was active--to placate this relentless being, his captor. He fairly grovelled. "I swear she was pure. I swear it!"
Without speaking a word, Ben turned. Going back to his snow-blind, he packed his blanket and camp kit swiftly and strapped them to his shoulders. Returning, he gathered the things he had found upon the other's person--the rifle, the revolvers, the sheath-knife--into a pile; then deliberately, one against the other, he broke them until they were useless. Only the blanket he preserved, tossing it down by the side of the prostrate figure.
"Tom Blair," he said, no indication now that he had ever been nearer to the other than a stranger, "Tom Blair, I've got a few things to say to you, and if you're wise you'll listen carefully, for I sha'n't repeat them. You're going with me, and you're going free; but if you try to escape, or cause me trouble, as sure as I'm alive this minute I'll strip off every stitch of clothing you wear and leave you where I catch you though the snow be up to your waist."
Slowly he reached over and untied first the feet then the hands. "Get up," he ordered.
Tom Blair arose, stretched himself stiffly.
"Take that," Ben indicated the blanket, "and go ahead straight for the river."
The bearded man obeyed. To have secured his freedom he could not have done otherwise.
For ten minutes they moved ahead, only the crunching snow breaking the stillness.
"Trot!" said Ben.
"I can't."
"Trot!" There was no misunderstanding the tone.
In single file they jogged ahead, reached the river, and descended to the level surface of its bed.
"Keep to the middle, and go straight ahead."
On they went--jog, jog, jog.
Of a sudden from under cover of the bank a frightened cottontail sprang forth and started running. Instantly there was the report of a big revolver, and Tom jumped as though he felt the bullet in his back. Again the report sounded, and this time the rabbit rolled over and over in the snow.
Without stopping, Ben picked up the still struggling game and slipped a couple of fresh cartridges into the empty revolver chambers. The banks were lined with burrows and tracks, and within five minutes a second cottontail met the fate of the first.