"The complete Samaritan, that's me," said Heine. "I haul fish up and Poor Fish down. Two loads for the price of one." "We will accept your insults along with the ride," Chuck Evers said wearily. "I never knew what a pretty thing a horse could be!" Heine dropped his fish cans, helped to hoist Evers onto one of the pack horses. Drinkard climbed aboard the other. "What happened?" asked the ranger. "I saw by the headquarters record that you were going up." Evers shrugged and John Drinkard said, "The boy here was playing rockchuck on the stretch below the glacier and one rolled with him." Evers grinned wryly, and John added, "It could happen to anybody, but it's the kind of thing that's partial to tender-feet." "Next time," said Evers humbly, "just leave me up there. I ain't worth saving." They stopped only once. At the big switchback, John Drinkard swung from his horse, pried up a stone, tossed the tobacco can to Evers without a word. The ranger only raised his eyebrows. * * * * * Back at their tent camp on the lake shore, Evers and Drinkard were not disturbed by questions. When men fail on the peaks, they tell their own stories in their own time. Chuck's ankle showed quick improvement and in a couple of days he was hobbling about. Only young Royston came to visit. "You have not been back to the Lodge," he said. "Perhaps you are afraid to show your faces?" "People talk your arm off up there," said Drinkard. He grinned at the pale young man. "Not many of 'em have the gall to come snooping down here!" Royston sat composedly on a boulder. "You cannot offend me. I was concerned for you, I was interested, so I came. Did you see the lights?" "Nary a light," said Chuck cheerfully. He sat in a canvas chair with his foot propped up. "I told you they wouldn't show when anybody was up there." Drinkard turned on him. "You collected five bucks from me by being on the other side of the fence. You were the man who was sure there would be some sign." Royston looked at them with pale eyes. "You are both muddling the waters. And you are both lying. There were lights on the peak when you were there and I have a feeling you saw them. They were quite a show from here." "Then this is the place to see them from," said Chuck. "Closer up, you lose perspective." Royston rose from his seat on the rock. "Friendship means nothing to you, so I will take my small hike back to the Lodge again. Actually, I came to say that tomorrow I leave this miserable place and go home. I have endured all the health I can stand." "Now that," said Chuck, "is a different story. We're sorry to see you go, fella." "Our regards to the swamps," John Drinkard put in. "Ten to one, when you get there, you'll wish you were back." Carl Royston showed his big teeth in a mirthless smile. "This," he said, "I very much doubt."