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.He nudged the gray and rode into the brush.Conditions were growing worse.The snow fell faster and thicker and the wind began to howl, whippingthe icy flakes into a frenzy.Within minutes Zach found himself in a whiteout.He didn't bother searching the ground for her horse's tracks.The snow had wiped out all traces of those.In any case he knew how easy it would be to miss seeing her in the swirling maelstrom.While he staredat the ground he could pass within a few feet of her and never know it.So he rode slowly, his eyesconstantly moving, straining to peer through the shifting white veil.Every few seconds he pulled down thescarf, cupped his mouth with both hands and yelled Willa's name.He had no idea how long he searched.It seemed like hours.He was cold to the bone.Icy crystals clungto his eyebrows and lashes above the scarf.He was beginning to lose feeling in his toes and the tips of hisfingers.Zach knew he had to seek shelter soon or perish, but he couldn't bring himself to stop searching.Willa was out there somewhere.It was pure accident that he found her.He stopped to get his bearings, and in a brief instant of partialclearing he spotted the ghostly form of a horse and rider slowly crossing his path a few feet ahead."Willa!"Giving no sign that she'd heard him, she rode on at the same plodding pace, hunched over, her coatcollar turned up all around.Then the wind shifted, and the curtain of white swallowed her up again, andterror grabbed Zach by the throat."Willa, stop!" He kicked his horse's flanks, and the startled gelding leaped forward.In three long lopeshe had her in sight again, but her lack of response and slumped posture only increased his fear.Lord, hadshe frozen to death in the saddle?"Wil-laaa! Wil-laaa!"Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlHer head came up like a deer testing the wind for a sound."Here! I'm here." Shouting over the howl of the wind, he rode up beside her, grabbed Bertha's reins andbrought her to a stop."Z-Zach?" She stared at him, her frost-rimmed lashes blinking owlishly."Yeah, it's me.Are you all right?"First shock then abject relief flashed across her face."You found me.You found me." She grabbed hisarm as though making sure he was real, then squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her quivering lipstogether."I thought & I thought I was going to die.""Yeah, well, we both may yet if we don't get out of this storm.C'mon." He expected her to argue whenhe pulled the reins from her stiff fingers, but she was either too scared, too exhausted or too frozen tocomplain.He wrapped Bertha's reins around his gloved palm, turned in the opposite direction and led herthrough the blinding whiteness.It would be dark soon.Zach knew that to attempt to descend the mountain at night in a blizzard wouldbe suicide.In any case, the trip would take too long.Willa was half frozen and needed shelter  now.Their only hope was to find the line camp.Seconds before spotting Willa he'd caught a glimpse of a giant tree that had been struck by lightning andsplit into a huge vee.He knew that the cabin was approximately ten feet due east of the dead pine.Willahad ridden right past it.Luckily, Zach possessed an unerring sense of direction.He'd also taken the precaution of bringinganother compass.In good weather, from where they were he could have tossed a stone and hit the log structure, yet itseemed to take forever to reach it.The exhausted horses plodded through the drifts with their headsdown.The puffs of vapor from the animal's nostrils froze instantly into tiny ice crystals.The wind shriekedaround them like a banshee, tearing at their clothes and stinging their exposed skin.Zach had expected Willa to question and argue, but she remained silent, which kicked his anxiety upanother notch.He glanced over his shoulder and saw that she sat hunched deep in her coat.She had herhead down and the wide collar turned up to meet the brim of her Stetson, shielding her face.She didn'tutter a sound until he brought the horses to a stop.Looking up, she saw the cabin, and surprise then utter relief passed over her face.Zach couldn't hearher over the wind, but he saw her lips form the words, "Thank God."Focused on keeping them alive, he wasted no time on conversation.He dismounted and tied the horsesto the hitching rail.Willa was so cold and stiff he had to lift her out of the saddle and carry her inside.Foronce she didn't fight him.He shouldered the door shut behind them, muting the howling fury of the storm.The weak, grayish glowseeping in through the lone window provided barely enough light to see, but Zach strode directly to thesmall table in the center of the room.Hooking the toe of his boot around a spindly leg, he pulled out aGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlwooden chair and sat her down.The temperature in the room was only slightly warmer than that outside.Willa hugged her arms tight andshivered."I'll get a fire going," Zach said tersely.He pulled a box of kitchen matches from a shelf and lit thekerosene lamp that hung from a bracket attached to the wall.Then he hunkered down in front of thepot-bellied stove, opened the small door and began pulling split logs and kindling from the wood box onthe floor.He worked with quick efficiency, his jaw clenched tight against the seething emotions bubblinginside him.The one-room cabin was a crude log structure, meant to house a cowboy through the summer months.An ancient hand pump mounted on the counter that served as a kitchen brought water into the cabin froma well, but that was the extent of the plumbing  or any other modern convenience.There was noelectricity.The old pot-bellied stove did double duty as a heat source and a cook range.A white enamelchamber pot was tucked beneath the bunk built into the corner, but unless the weather was inclementmost cowboys simply grabbed a roll of tissue and headed for the bushes when nature called.For thosewho were too fastidious  or too chicken  to bathe in the icy waters of a mountain stream, a galvanizedtub hung on a nail by the stove.When Zach had a good blaze going, he stood and dusted off his hands."There, you should start feelingsome heat soon.""Th thanks."Maybe it was the brevity of her answer, or the pathetic quaver, in her voice [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]