"No, I prefer to walk to where the gully is not so deep."
They struck out, to find the bottom of the gulch filled with bowlders, bushes and snow. More than once one or another went down into a hollow and had to be hauled out.
"Phew! but it's cold down here!" murmured Whopper. "My feet feel like two cakes of ice."
"One of the delights of hunting in the winter time," observed Snap.
"Want to go home, Whopper?"
"Not for a million dollars and a mince pie thrown in," was the prompt answer.
"Say, a piece of mince pie wouldn't go bad just now." said Shep, smacking his lips.
"Don't mention it, please."
It took a quarter of an hour's hard journeying to reach a point where the gully was only four or five feet deep, and here they left the hollow with ease. They were now further away from the lake than ever and in a locality that looked new to them.
"I don't remember this spot, although I thought we were all over this ground last summer," observed Snap.
"A place looks different in winter from what it does in summer," said
Shep.