"It's bloody well disappeared," she said. "I think that damned creature scared it right out of me."
I took her hand. "Get your gear together and let's start hunting," I said. "The longer we wait the less chance well have of finding anything." She nodded and in minutes we were clambering up the mountain. We paused to pick up my blanket and food and then pushed on. The snow and sub-zero temperatures combined to lash our faces with biting, stinging pain, and each step was like having a fistful of sharp pebbles thrown into your face. I chose a narrow trail along a sheer wall of ice on the chance that it might lead into a large crevasse between two glaciers. If we could find a spot there we'd be somewhat protected from the fury of the wind at least. The ledge grew narrower and the trail turned upwards alongside the cliff. Suddenly it broadened and I was standing on a small plateau. A dark shape loomed up in the wall of the cliff and I advanced through the curtain of white toward it. As I neared it I saw it was the entrance to a cave in the rock.
"Over here, Hilary," I called excitedly. "Come on." I went into the cave, bending low to fit through the small entranceway. It was dry, clean and had obviously been used by other travelers at some time because there was firewood piled against one wall. I couldn't stand erect inside it but it was about fifteen feet deep and ten feet wide. We built a fire in the mouth of the cave, just back of the snowline quickly piling up outside. The wind kept the warmth blowing back into the cave and within the hour, the cave was as warm as a cottage living room. We took off our outer garments and spread them on the ground to let them dry. Hilary had calmed down, and under her outerwear she had on an orange sweater, and deep blue slacks. She chatted on gaily about her background, her home life in England, and we exchanged anecdotes and stories. It was a different Hilary Cobb, a warm, vivacious girl without the hostile aggressiveness, and I commented on it.
"It's you blighters that make a girl aggressive," she said. "You never think a girl can do anything right."
"But there are a lot of girls who accept that and don't get all full of desire to compete and prove things," I countered.
"I guess I'm just not one of them," she said crisply, and I smiled as I saw her temper flaring instantly.
"I know," I said. "That's why you followed me up here."
"Well, yes, but only partly so," she answered.
"What do you mean by that?"
She turned and fixed her lovely blue eyes full on me, wide and round. Her pert nose and lovely skin glowed in the reflected light of the fire.
"Will you believe me?" she asked unsmiling. I nodded.
"Frankly, I was worried about you up here alone," she said. "I guess it was a mixture of the two. I'm after my story and you'd better not forget that. But after watching you with that bloody snake, I knew that you were someone extraordinary and whatever brought you here was important. And I felt that you were going it all alone and that, somehow, wasn't right."
"I'm touched, Hilary," I said seriously. "I am. But I haven't been going it alone. The old man was a help and a guide. And Khaleen has been very helpful in many ways."
"I'll bet," she snapped, and I grinned. Jealousy was, I'd learned a long time ago, a built-in female commodity, and it was there even when it had no damned right to be there.
"The girl is in love with you, you know," she added, and I was reminded of another female quality, that unique ability to sense certain things without question or doubt and be completely right about them. She caught the slight tightness of my lips.
"Well, it's true and I'm sorry for her," she said.
"Sorry for her?" I frowned "Why?"
"You know the answer to that as well as I do " she snapped. "Because you're not a man to fall in love with, not the way she has, anyway." I knew she was completely right, of course, and my slow smile revealed it.
"And you'll hurt her because you can't help but hurt her," Hilary added. "That's why I feel sorry for her."
"You're very protective today," I grinned. "First my going it alone up here and now Khaleen's being hurt."
"I'm just a Girl Scout trying for an extra merit badge," she snapped. "I told you you wouldn't understand."
"Better watch out for your own emotions," I said. "Or are you as good at self-protection?" She caught the taunting edge to my voice and her eyes narrowed.
"Better," she said. "I don't get involved in anything, and I don't do anything unless I'm calling the shots."
I grinned and brought out the food. The dried beef looked decidedly unappetizing though I was getting hungry. I slipped on my parka and picked up the Marlin.
"Well go into the last remark in greater detail later," I said. "Meanwhile, I think maybe I can do better in the food department. You stay here, woman, and tend cave."
"Yes, master," she said, flashing a smile of mock servility. I'd let the fire burn low and I stepped over it and went into the storm. I remembered how, on my first trip through the mountains I'd seen pheasants even higher in the cliffs than we were now. Knowing that the habits of birds are not changed, even by storms, I tried to peer through the white curtain. I moved along the plateau, listening every few steps. The wind, blowing in gusts, lifted the snow in between gusts and allowed me to glimpse ahead a little. I crouched low and grew colder by the second. I was just about to give it up as a bad job when I heard the flutter of wings and I saw two pheasants making their way across the plateau to where it rose slightly to meet a clump of brush. I raised the gun and aimed carefully. The Marlin could blow a hole so big there wouldn't be any bird left to eat. I got the nearest one in the head, blowing it off and leaving the rest of the body untouched. Returning to the cave with my trophy, I built up the fire again and used Hugo to do neat surgery on the pheasant.
"A dinner fit for a queen," I proclaimed, later. "Barbecued pheasant What more could anyone ask?"
"No wine?" Hilary commented acidly.
We were midway through dinner, chomping on the pheasant which was a little gamey but tender, when Hilary asked two very direct questions. I decided to answer both of them honestly. It's not hard to be honest when you hold all the cards.
"What is this all about, Nick?" she questioned. "Why are you here? Why was Harry Angsley sent here?" I looked at her, blue eyes gazing soberly up at me, her blonde hair sending brass glints off in the flickering glow of the fire, large breasts so invitingly thrusting out the bright orange sweater. She'd managed to plunge herself into things so deeply this time that I decided to play straight with her, especially since I knew she wouldn't be sending her story anywhere.
"The Chinese Reds are trying to pull a sneak takeover in Nepal," I said flatly. I filled her in on the details as I knew them, on Ghotak's role as an inside column leader, on the already sizable influx of trained revolutionists under the guise of peaceful immigrants. When I'd finished, she was unsmiling and serious faced.
"Thank you for being honest, at last," she said. "I felt it was something on that order but I didn't realize how close to success they were."
She lapsed into silence, and I watched her in the firelight. She was really a very attractive girl, I had long ago decided. Here, in the warmth of the fire, with the snowfall raging outside, she was desirable as well as very attractive. Her second question came as though she had been reading my thoughts.
"This snow isn't stopping soon," she said. "We may be spending the night here. Are you going to try to make love to me, Nick?"
"I'm not going to try," I said. "I'm going to do it." I saw the hostility instantly leap into her eyes.
"I told you I don't do anything unless I'm calling the shots," she said.
"I heard you," I grinned. "That's okay with me. You can call. In fact, I'm sure you will."