There was a risk that he himself might suffer the same fate--he was not blind to it.

He had taken the risk knowingly, and with a certain indifference.

It was the best plan, since, if he escaped alive, suspicion could not fall on him.
Thus he argued, as he smoked his pipe with his back to the rock and waited for the morning.
At one o'clock Walter Hine began to ramble.

He took Garratt Skinner and Pierre Delouvain for Captain Barstow and Archie Parminter, and complained that it was ridiculous to sit up playing poker on so cold a night; and while in his delirium he rambled and moaned, the morning began to break.
But with the morning came a wind from the north, whirling the snow like smoke about the mountain-tops, and bitingly cold.

Garratt Skinner with great difficulty stood up, slowly and with pain stretched himself to his full height, slapped his thighs, stamped with his feet, and then looked for a long while at his victim, without remorse, and without satisfaction.