Well, you had better start in and carry me." Seaforth stooped and grasped his comrade round the thighs, which were lashed together with deerhide with a stiff strip of cedar-bark outside them.

Okanagan passed his arms about his shoulders, and they rose with a jerk and stood swaying unevenly for a moment, while Seaforth wondered with a curious feeling of helplessness whether they would ever accomplish the journey to the canoe.

It would have tested the agility of an unencumbered man, while he was almost worn out, and Alton cruelly heavy.
"Heave him up a trifle," said Okanagan.

"Now then!" Seaforth gasped, and floundered forward through a foot of snow that hid the holes he sank into and slipped away beneath him as he clawed for a footing on the boulders, but with strenuous toil they made a hundred yards or so, and then laying down their burden stood still, panting.
Alton lay silent, with half-closed eyes and the soft flakes settling on his grey face, in the snow, while Seaforth gazed about him despairingly.

There was rock and shadowy forest behind them, and in front the smoking rush of the river, while though it was but afternoon the light was failing.
"Get hold again, Tom.