It was mid-forenoon when the postmaster awoke, and a man was standing over him, shaking his shoulder. The man was coming home from, the frolic at the cabin, and finding the front door bolted, had come around to the shed. He had the cake and the gun, which he had found in the field. "What in the name o' sense are ye doin' here at this time o' day, 'Manuel? Come outen that manger." The postmaster obeyed in a dazed sort of way, and when he was on his feet he shook the straws and bits of corn-husks from his clothing, the old brindle ox looking at the two men with his mild eyes from his place in the corner. "What made ye drap these things out in the field, 'Manuel?" said the man. "Come into the office, Jonas," said the postmaster, leading the way; and then he told the other of the fearful sight he had seen. The sun was warm after the rain, and soon others began to come,--men and women,--and he told his story again and again, to the awe and amazement of his simple listeners. "I seen a quare streak down the long bank, as I came through the woods," said one man; "I did sure." And then they all went out into the field where the gun and the cake had been found. Sure enough, there was a dull line plainly to be seen on the smooth crust of the snow. They all agreed that this was the track of the "harnt," who had amused himself in the night-time by climbing up and sliding down on the face of the avalanche. The story spread through the settlements, and no man was bold enough thereafter to think of bridging the gorge to get upon the haunted mountain. CHAPTER XVIII KNOWLEDGE PROM ABOVE When Philip awoke, after having swooned at the feet of his comrades when his rescue was accomplished, he lay in the delicious warmth of his bunk. The late afternoon sun streamed in at the window over his head, and Coleman sat watching at his side. Bromley was stirring the fire, which was burning briskly on the hearth, and the smell of gruel was in the room. The station flags and the crossed sabers brightened the space above the chimneypiece. The map hung on the opposite wall, and over it the old flag with thirty-five stars seemed to have been draped just where it would first catch his waking eye. Strangely enough, the immediate cause that awoke Philip was a dull boom which made the faces of his comrades turn pale, and which was no less than the fall of the avalanche on which he had passed the night and the best part of the day before. Philip, if he heard the sound at all, was not sufficiently awake at the time to understand its awful meaning; and without noticing the pallor of his comrades, he weakly put out his hand, which Coleman took in his own with a warm pressure, and Bromley came over to the side of the bunk and looked doubtingly into his face. Neither of his comrades uttered a word. "Give me the gruel," said Philip; "I was never so hungry before. And don't look at me so, George; I'm not mad."