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Page 17:-
danger. There lay Mr. Idle writhing with pain, there was the
mist as thick as ever, there was the landlord as completely
lost as the strangers whom he was conducting, and there was
the compass broken in Goodchild's pocket. To leave the
wretched Thomas on an unknown ground was plainly impossible;
and to get him to walk with a badly sprained ankle seemed
equally out of the question. However, Goodchild (brought
back by his cry for help) bandaged the ankle with a
pocket-handkerchief, and assisted by the landlord, raised
the crippled Apprentice to his legs, offered him a shoulder
to lean on, and exhorted him for the sake of the whole party
to try if he could walk. Thomas, assisted by the shoulder on
one side, and a stick on the other, did try, with what pain
and difficulty those only can imagine who have sprained an
ankle and have had to tread on it afterwards. At a pace
adapted to the feeble hobbling of a newly-lamed man, the
lost party moved on, perfectly ignorant whether they were on
the right side of the mountain or the wrong, and equally
uncertain how long Idle would be able to contend with the
pain in his ankle, before he gave in altogether and fell
down again, unable to stir another step.
Slowly and more slowly, as the clog of crippled Thomas
weighed heavily and more heavily on the march of the
expedition, the lost travellers followed the windings of the
stream, till they came to a faintly-marked cart-track,
branching off nearly at right angles, to the left. After a
little consultation it was resolved to follow this dim
vestige of a road in the hope that it might lead to some
farm or cottage, at which Idle could be left in safety, It
was now getting on towards the afternoon, and it was fast
becoming more doubtful whether the party, delayed in their
progress as they now were, might not be overtaken by the
darkness before the right route was found, and be condemned
to pass the night on the mountain, without bit or drop to
comfort them, in their wet clothes.
The cart-track grew fainter and fainter, until it was washed
out altogether by another little stream, dark, turbulent,
and rapid. The landlord suggested, judging by the colour of
the water, that it must be flowing from one of the lead
mines in the neighbourhood of Carrock; and the travellers
accordingly kept by the stream for a little while, in the
hope of possibly wandering towards help in that way. After
walking forward about
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