The
circle of his vision had narrowed till it was impossible at times to see
fifty rods away. The push of the wind grew each moment mightier. A
multitudinous, soft, rushing, whispering roar was rising round them,
mixed with a hissing, rustling sound like the passing of invisible,
winged hosts. He could feel his woman shake with cold, but she spoke no
further word of complaint.
He turned the horses suddenly to the left, speaking through his teeth.
"We must make the store," he said. "We must have more wraps. We'll stop
at the Ranch and get warm, and then go on. The wind may lull--anyway, it
will be at our backs."
As the team turned to the south the air seemed a little less savage, but
Blanche still writhed with pain. Her hands suffered most; her feet had
grown numb.
"We'll be there in a few minutes," Rivers cheerily repeated, but he
began to understand her desperate condition.
A quarter of an hour later his team drew up before the door of the
ranch-house. It seemed deliciously warm in the lee of the long walls.
"Well, here we are.
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