"Why do you wait here?" I asked. He saw in my eyes that I wouldn't think twice about dropping him off the edge.
"We wait orders to move," he said.
"Orders from whom?" I asked.
He shrugged. "I am only soldier," he said. "Cannot say."
I pushed him further off the edge and he grabbed for my arm for support. His narrow eyes widened in terror.
"Orders from whom?" I repeated. "You're a specially picked lot, I'd bet, and you all know why you're here."
"Orders from monk," he gasped.
"When do you expect them?"
He started to give me another evasive answer but thought better of it. "Soon," he stammered. "Any time now. Snow delay everthing."
I pulled him back from the edge. I was only going to put him out and let him find his way back to Tibet when he woke up, if he could, but he made the mistake of lunging at me. I sidestepped the lunge, kicked his feet out from under him and chopped him across the neck. He went down, rolled over and, as the loose snow gave way beneath the weight of his body, slipped over the edge and into the cut I climbed back to where I'd left Hilary.
"We have to get back, but not until we take care of this bunch," I told her in a matter-of-fact tone.
"You're balmy," she said. "The two of us against all of them? You can't be serious."
"You do just as I say and well take care of every one of them all at once," I said. I'd taken the soldier's rifle with me and I gave it to Hilary, taking my Marlin back. I gestured to the towering mountainsides on both sides of the pass.
"Those cliffs and ledges are covered with tons of fresh snow that hasn't settled yet," I said. "It can be dislodged by any sudden vibration and a gigantic avalanche triggered."
I saw sudden understanding come into her eyes. "And the vibration could be caused by shots echoing in the pass, bouncing back and forth off the mountainsides," she said.
"Bright girl," I said. "Sometimes it only takes the vibration from the soundwaves of one shot to trigger a snowslide. But we're going to make sure. I'm going to climb down and cross over to the other side. When you hear my first shot, you start firing. Aim right across at the opposite mountainside. Get off six shots and then stop. Whatever you do, don't move from here. You'll be protected here under the ledge overhead. When it's over you can start down. I'll meet you at the bottom of this cut."
I started down, waving back at her. I stayed low as I reached the edge of the pass where the sentry had been. Wriggling across the open space on my belly, I reached the other side and began to climb up the slippery, loose snow. Finding a niche approximately at the same level as Hilary was across from me, I looked down at the troops in the pass. I couldn't pick Hilary out in the glare of the fresh snow, but I raised the rifle and fired. I heard her shot answer at once. I kept firing into the air, six shots in all. Below, the Chinese were scurrying about, dashing from their tents, looking up, wondering what the hell was going on. When I stopped Hilary's last shot echoed across the pass and I listened for the sound I was almost certain would come. It began as a soft rumble first and then it gathered volume until, as the tons upon tons of snow began to cascade down the cliffs on both sides of the pass, the rumbling roar was punctuated by the sharp cracks of hardened snow shaken loose by the white torrent. The avalanche roared into the pass, burying the men and the tents in minutes, piling snow upon snow until there was nothing but a gigantic mound of the white death. I waited, silent, awed by the cataclysmic force of what I'd witnessed. A strange silence settled over the pass, a silence of utter and total finality, as if the towering giants of stone were uttering their own pax vobiscum.
I started down slowly and met Hilary at the bottom of the cut. We made the tortuous route back down the mountains with hardly a word between us. The spectacle of nature's awesome power had made words almost like man, a seemingly superfluous, unimportant quantity.
We reached the village and once again I witnessed the Nepalese Western Union at work. The first two men we met took one look at me and ran off down the street. I knew that in one hour everyone would know that the foreigner had returned safely.
"See you around, Nick," Hilary said as she walked on when we neared Khaleen's house. "It's not over yet, is it?"
"No," I said. "Not yet. Not so long as Ghotak is still trying."
"Then be careful, will you?" she said, her eyes suddenly misty.
"Keep in close touch, doll," I said. "You haven't got your story yet."
Khaleen came racing out of the house as I approached and fell into my arms, her small body quivering. I was glad Hilary had walked on.
"My Nick, my Nick," she sobbed. "You were right. You are alive and all that you said was right. The people will know it now."
"Not everything I said," I murmured. "The yeti lives. I saw him."
She recoiled from my arms as though she'd been stabbed. "You saw the yeti?" she said, horror in her voice. "You saw him from a distance, no?"
"I fought with him," I said. "I looked into his eyes."
She seemed to shrivel up and I took her in my arms.
"What is it, Khaleen?" I asked. "What's the matter?"
"It is known that he who looks upon the face of the yeti will die," she said tonelessly.
"Oh, for God's sake," I exploded. "You people have a proverb for everything concerning the yeti. I looked at the damned thing, and I'm not going to die because of it. That'll be one more damned proverb you can scratch off the books."
She turned and went into the house and I felt sorry for her. Her unbounded joy had been torn apart I turned and strode down the street toward the temple. Ghotak, obviously warned by one of his men that I was approaching, appeared at the steps and came down to face me.
"Aren't you calling a meeting?" I said. "Come on, chum, let's hear those bells. I'm back, see, and very alive."
"I can see that," he said through tight lips. "I shall not call the people together. This only means that another sign from Karkotek must be awaited."
I glanced about and saw that a crowd had quickly gathered about and he was grandstanding it.
"All right," I shrugged. "No meeting and there'll be another sign. The next one will mean your finish, Ghotak, you and the yeti and your whole crew." I turned and started off but I paused and looked back at him. "Oh, by the way," I grinned. "The company you were expecting won't be able to make it. They told me to tell you they're just snowed under."
I saw his jaws clench and his eyes shoot sparks of fury at me. He turned and went back into the temple and I walked off. His impassive exterior was being hard pressed to stay that way as his house of cards was beginning to crumble. I walked back to the house and went into my room. I was tired, damned tired, and it didn't take long for me to fall asleep. I was dimly aware that Khaleen's warm little form did not steal into the room and press itself close against me, and I was vaguely sorry and saddened.