Chapter XXV.
THE PERILS OF A MIDNIGHT SEARCH.
The next morning snow was falling, and the wind was blowing furiously.
"This ought to bring us some small birds, and maybe an owl or two," said Tug, as he watched the dense clouds of snow hurled along from the northern waste of ice.
"Do you think you would dare to go out to the traps, or could find them in this gale?" Aleck asked.
"I reckon so; and while I'm gone you take the gun and see if you can't find snow-birds among the hemlocks."
"What'll you do if those dogs get after you? They're perfectly savage with hunger. It don't take much wildness or long famine to turn a dog back to a wolf, and we've got to look out for these curs as if they were wild beasts."
"You're right," Tug assented. "But I hardly think they'll be out on the ice in this storm; you are more likely to meet them in the woods. At any rate, we must have something to eat, and it's my business to tend those traps, wolves or no wolves. If I go under, why, there's one less mouth to feed."