I don't think the cavern is more'n five or six miles away, Johnny, mebby less, an' it took us twenty hours to reach it.

It snowed so heavy that night, an' the wind blowed so, that our trail was filled up or they might ha' followed." Many times Aldous had been on the point of asking old Donald a question.
For the first time he asked it now, even as his eyes swept slowly and searchingly over the valley for signs of Mortimer FitzHugh and Quade.
"I've often wondered why you ran away with Jane," he said.

"I know what threatened her--a thing worse than death.

But why did you run?
Why didn't you stay and fight ?" A low growl rumbled in MacDonald's beard.
"Johnny, Johnny, if I only ha' could!" he groaned.

"There was five of them left when I ran into the cabin an' barricaded myself there with Jane.