“Ho! There must be men within the hut—dead or alive. See the dead wolves? There must have been a battle. We shall go in.”
The footsteps approached the door. A moment later there was a loud knock.
“Shall we open the door?” whispered Jack.
“May as well,” replied Boris. “If we don’t, they will break the door in.”
Came a second heavy knock on the door and a voice called:
“Is there any one there?”
“One moment and I shall unbar the door,” Boris called back.
The door opened at last, three men, cloaked in the uniform of Russian officers, strode in. They eyed Jack and Boris keenly.
“What are you doing here?” demanded one, evidently the commander.
“We took shelter here from the wolves,” replied Boris guardedly, for, if possible, he did not wish to tell the officers they had recently come from the direction of the Siberian prison camp.