"I didn't ask you to look out for me," she said. "Maybe I'll look out for you. Now, if you have any tea I'll be getting back to my camp."
"Coffee," I said, growling the word at her.
"Then it'll have to be coffee," she said. I handed her two packets of the instant coffee and she nodded politely.
"Thanks terribly, old boy," she said. "Call me if you need me."
She turned and walked down the ledge, disappearing around the corner. I went after her and halted at the corner. In the dark night she had already disappeared but I could hear her making her way down the snow-covered cliffs. I saw her fire now, from the corner vantage point. She had camped on another ledge a few hundred feet down and over from me. I stood watching and finally saw her figure appear beside the fire. I watched for a few moments as she brewed her coffee and then turned back to the warmth of my own fire. A few minutes from the fire, and I found myself walking stiffly, the icy cold seeping through my clothes, driven by the tremendous winds at the unprotected corner of the ledge. I sat down by the fire and found myself smiling as I thought of Hilary Cobb. Damn, you had to admire her dogged determination. She said she was going to sit on my tail until she got a story and she was doing just that. I was sorry that I had to see to it that her story was never filed. I smiled again. She'd have little to show for this night except a damned uncomfortable memory, unless Ghotak showed up. Somehow, I was beginning to think he was backing away from direct action. I got my blanket out, a thick, wool robe, covered my legs with it, rested the Marlin 336 across my lap and closed my eyes. The fire, with some fresh wood on it, would keep me warm till dawn, probably. I fell into a half sleep, my body more asleep than awake, my senses more awake than asleep.
The hours slipped by, and only the wind's cry broke the silence. A few times I snapped my eyes open at a sound only to listen and hear it was but the cracking of ice or the sliding of a snow ledge. The sky was dark, and snow had begun to fall, still light and not much more than flurries. I closed my eyes and continued to rest in half-awake watchfulness. Gray dawn was beginning to tint the sky and the mountain peaks stood out as dark shapes, the jagged teeth of some mythological giant. I was looking at them through nearly closed lids when I heard the screams, first Hilary and than a bone-chilling half roar and half scream. I leaped up, the Marlin in hand, bounded right through my smoldering campfire, and raced to the edge of the ledge. I could see down into her campsite plainly. She was racing across the small plateau, falling on the ice, and behind her, on two legs, was a creature out of hell, a demon from some ancient mythology, something which couldn't exist. Long gray-white hair covered its body. It had a sub-human face, clawed hands and clawed feet. It stood erect, nearly seven feet, I guessed, its nakedness covered by the ape-like grayish hair. I saw it reach a gigantically long arm down and seize the girl's jacket, lifting her from behind as one would a child.
I took aim with the Marlin but he or it was swinging the girl up in front of him. I couldn't get a clear shot but I decided that a shot, anywhere, just for the effect, would be better than nothing. Racing down the steep, icy pathway, I got off two blasts and saw the creature stop, drop the girl and look up toward me. I was on my way down to the plateau, unable to stop my sliding, slipping, falling descent. I had all I could do to hang onto the rifle and not break my neck. The creature let out another fantastic screaming roar, and as I landed at the plateau, it loped off in the other direction. I ran after it, lifting the rifle as I ran, and got off a shot. The bullet creased its shoulder and it turned in fury and pain. I stopped to get off another shot but as I did, my foot went out from under me on a stretch of snow-covered ice. I fell backwards, the rifle skittering off to one side.
The creature rushed at me and now, at close quarters, its sub-human face was, I could see, elongated and snout-like. Its eyes, small and dark, were the button eyes of a bear. All I had time for was to dive for the rifle and get my hands on the barrel. I swung it with all my strength and the heavy stock caught the damned thing flush in the face. It was a blow that would have crushed in a man's skull. The creature halted, staggered back a moment, and leaped at me. Still holding the Marlin by the barrel, I swung it around, found the trigger and let go a blast into the air, hoping it might frighten him back. I had no room or time to get the barrel pointed at it. The damned thing just leaped. I flung myself flat and felt the huge form brush over me. I caught a glimpse of its feet, human in shape except for the clawed forepads. The thing kept on going after its leap, vaulting up a huge rock, leaping onto another. I aimed a shot at the leaping form but I was shooting too fast and from a bad position. The shot missed and I got up to see the thing disappearing into the deep ribbed crevices.
Hilary was sitting up, her eyes wide with shock. I went over to her and pushed the hood of her parka back. The snow was coming down heavily now.
"Are you all right?" I asked. She looked up at me and fell into my arms, her breath coming in great, heaving sobs. I looked her over. Except for the shredded back of her parka where the creature's claws had lifted her, she was all right. Terrified, but otherwise all right.
"Oh, my God," she finally whispered. 'What was it, Nick?"
"I don't know," I said. "It was something that doesn't exist, a legend, a piece of folklore. I still don't believe it. I saw it, I tangled with it, and I still don't believe it."
Hilary's head was against my arm, her hair nearly white with snow. I pulled the hood of her parka back over her head. "Oh, Nick, Nick," she said. "The abominable snowman exists. The yeti lives. You can't scoff at the legend any longer. You can't, I can't. It's true, Nick, true."
I hadn't any answers. They'd all been swallowed up by a hairy demon out of some ancient book on mythological creatures. But was it an animal? Or was it human? Hilary shuddered. "God, Nick, it's well named," she breathed. "It certainly was abominable. I'll never completely disbelieve another legend about anything anywhere, not after this."
Her eyes were wide, looking up at me, and terribly blue. Snowflakes covered her eyebrows and clung to the lids of her eyes and her lovely, round-cheeked face seemed to sparkle. I tore my eyes from her and found myself thinking of the swift juxtaposition of things, from sheer horribleness to fresh, clean loveliness in a matter of minutes.
"I'm afraid, Nick," she shivered again. "I'm afraid it will come back."
"Somehow, I don't think so," I answered. "This has some very interesting aspects to it. The yeti apparently lives, but so do I."
"This is no time for riddles," she said. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"We must admit the damned thing is real," I said. "But it didn't attack me. It attacked your camp. It doesn't kill or attack because the Spirit of Karkotek tells it to do so. It kills indiscriminately. If it's tied in with anything, I'm betting it's Ghotak."
"Nobody could control that creature, Nick," Hilary protested.
"Not control the way you mean it, not like having a trained dog," I said. "But there are all sorts of control. Somehow, I don't think it roams entirely on its own."
Hilary got up. She looked at the snow, now coming down in stinging, biting, slanted fury. The other peaks were all but invisible because of the curtain of white.
"This is a bloody blizzard, Nick," she said. "We'll never make our way back in this. It would be sure death. Why, we couldn't see a crevasse in front of us."
She turned to me and clutched my arm. "I'm afraid, Nick," she said. "I'm afraid."
"We'll have to go up," I said. "We'll have to find a spot we can hole up in till it blows out. I've enough food and coffee to keep us for two days. This might blow out by this afternoon. Come on, where's all that determination?"