But the mist was gone in a few moments, and then the blackness of night came with a weird moaning wind that told of desolation.

Most of the children, having passed through every phase of exhaustion and terror, had fallen asleep.

Some of the women slept, also, and others wept.

But the terrible wailing note, which the nerves of no man could stand, was heard no longer.
The five gathered again at a point near by, and Carpenter came to them.
"Men," he said simply, "don't know much about you, though I know you fought well in the battle that we lost, but for what you're doin' now nobody can ever repay you.

I knew that I never could get across the mountains with all these weak ones." The five merely said that any man who was a man would help at such a time.