The warm, soft nose still snuggled against his ear. The horse seemed
actually to understand. In a flash the boy determined to tie the lantern
to the animal's neck. Then, in another flash, he realized that he had
nothing with which to secure it there. The horse had not an inch of
halter or tie line on him. An inspiration came to him like an answer to
prayer, and within two seconds he acted upon it. Ripping off his coat,
he flung it over the horse's neck, the sleeves hanging down beneath the
animal's throat. Slipping one through the ring handle of the lantern, he
knotted them together. The horse lifted his head, and the lantern swung
clear and brilliant almost under the soft, warm nostrils.
"Get up there, old Grey! Get up!" shouted the boy desperately,
"clicking" with his tongue the well-known sound to start a horse on
the go. "Get up! And oh, Grey, go to the danger spot, nowhere else.
The danger spot, quick! Get up!"
The animal turned, and slowly mounted the broken ledge of earth and
rock. Jacky watched with strained, aching eyes until the light
disappeared over the bluff. Then his agonized knees collapsed. His
shoulders, with no warmth except the thin shirt-sleeves to cover them,
began to sting, then ache, then grow numb. Once more he huddled into
a limp little heap, and this time his eyes closed.
* * * * * * * *
"Do you know, father, I'm anxious about Jacky," said Mrs. Moran, as
they sat down to supper without the boy. "He's never come back since
he started with the lantern, and it's such an awful night. I'm afraid
something has happened to him."
"Why, nothing could have happened," answered Mr. Moran. "The lantern was
burning at the 'death-hole' all right as we crossed the ice."
"Then why isn't Jacky home long ago?" asked Mrs. Moran. "He never goes
to Andy's at this hour. He is always on time for supper. I don't like
it, Tom, one bit. The night is too bad for him not to have come directly
home. There, hear that wind." As she spoke the gale swept around the
bend of the river, and the house rocked with the full force of the
storm.
Tom Moran shoved back his chair, leaving his meal half finished. "That's
so," said he, a little anxiously, as he got into his heavy coat. "I'll
go up shore and see. Oh, there's Alick now, and 'Old Mack,'" as a
thundering knock fell on the door. "They said they were coming over
after supper for a talk with me." Then, as the door burst open, and the
big foreman, accompanied by "Old Mack," shouldered their way into the
room, Tom Moran added: "Say, boys, the kid ain't home, and his mother is
getting nervous about him. Will you two fellows take a turn around the
bend with me to hunt him up?"
"What!" yelled the big foreman. "Our little Jack o' Lantern out in this
blizzard? You better believe we'll go with you, Tom. And what's more,
we'll go right now. Hustle up, boys." And Alick Duncan strode out again,
with a frown of anxiety knitting his usually jovial face.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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