"I figure we're two miles north of the lava beds, de Spain," shouted Morgan. De Spain shook his head in dissent. "Then where are we?" demanded the older man rudely. "I ought not to say, against you. But if I've got to guess, I say two miles east. Either way, we must try for Sleepy Cat. Is your team all right?" "Team is all right. We tore a wheel near off getting out of the lava. The wagon's done for." De Spain threw the fur coat at him. "Put it on," he said. "We'll look at the wheel." They tried together to wrench it into shape, but worked without avail. In the end they lashed it, put Nan on the Lady, and walked behind while the team pushed into the pitiless wind. Morgan wanted to cut the wagon away and take to the horses, but de Spain said, not till they found a trail or the stage road. So much snow had fallen that in spite of the blizzard, driving with an unrelenting fury, the drifts were deepening, packing, and making all effort increasingly difficult. It was well-nigh impossible to head the horses into the storm, and de Spain looked with ever more anxious eyes at Nan. After half an hour's superhuman struggle to regain a trail that should restore their bearings, they halted, and de Spain, riding up to the wagon, spoke to Morgan, who was driving: "How long is this going to last?" "All day and all night." Nan leaned closely over to hear the curt question and answer. Neither man spoke again for a moment. "We'll have to have help," said de Spain after a pause. "Help?" echoed Morgan scornfully. "Where's help coming from?" De Spain's answer was not hurried. "One of us must go after it." Nan looked at him intently. Duke set his hard jaw against the hurtling stream of ice that showered on the forlorn party. "I'll go for it," he snapped. "No," returned de Spain. "Better for me to go." "Go together," said Nan. De Spain shook his head. Duke Morgan, too, said that only one should go; the other must stay. De Spain, while the storm rattled and shook at the two men, told why he should go himself. "It's not claiming you are not entitled to say who should go, Duke," he said evenly. "Nor that our men, anywhere you reach, wouldn't give you the same attention they would me. And it isn't saying that you're not the better man for the job--you've travelled the Sinks longer than I have. But between you and me, Duke, it's twenty-eight years against fifty. I ought to hold out a while the longer, that's all. Let's work farther to the east." Quartering against the mad hurricane, they drove and rode on until the team could hardly be urged to further effort against the infuriated elements--de Spain riding at intervals as far to the right and the left as he dared in vain quest of a landmark. When he halted beside the wagon for the last time he was a mass of snow and ice; horse and rider were frozen to each other. He got down to the ground with a visible effort, and in the singing wind told Duke his plan and purpose.