"What we you going to do?"
"I'll show you. Be quick."
Walking to the nearest bushes, Snap cut them down with the hatchet he had insisted upon carrying. Shep now understood, and both lugged the bushes to the edge of the fast sinking snow. Then more bushes were brought, and at last, almost exhausted, Giant and Whopper crawled forth on their hands and knees, their snowshoes held in the air. Then they got up on their feet and lost no time in gaining a point of safety.
"I told you to be careful," said Snap, rather severely. "And Jack Dalton warned you, too. It is a lucky thing you didn't sink into the marsh up to your head."
"We were after the duck and didn't think," answered Whopper. "But you can bet I'll be careful next time."
"So will I be careful," came from Giant. "Where's the duck?"
"Flew away—I saw it," answered Shep. "Gracious, how the wind is rising!" he added, pulling his coat collar closer to his neck. "It's going to be a hammer of a snowstorm."
"I think we had better get off the Marshes," said Snap, after a look at the sky and the whirling snow. "This looks to me as if it was going to turn into blizzard."
"Going to leave with only two ducks?" asked the doctor's son. "It seems a pity—after tramping such a distance, too!"
"Maybe we'll strike some more going back," said Snap, cheerfully.