The latter, not yet quite realizing the greatness of their good fortune, stumbled through the blinding snow, their numbed feet still torturing them.
Where were the natives leading them? Perhaps to a fire and comfort, perhaps to captivity and new hardships. At any rate, wherever they were bound seemed a terribly long distance away.
But at last they came to a white object, looming solidly against the background of the densely falling snow. On approaching more closely to it the boys found it was a wall, apparently built of snow, about five feet high and circular in shape.
They wondered if this were some sort of a snow prison. Then they had reached a narrow opening in the snow wall, just large enough to permit them to squeeze through it.
They had tramped along but a few feet when they came upon the most peculiar looking structure they had ever seen in their lives.
It was an igloo, a snow hut of the type that is so common among the far reaches of the Northern country. To the surprised eyes of the boys it looked enormous, and the gleaming white sides of it made it look like a fairy dwelling.
Then one of the natives who preceded them pushed aside a huge skin which covered the entrance of this queer dwelling and the boys found themselves in a room whose snug warmth enwrapped them deliciously.
Never before had they reveled in anything as they did in that moment of physical comfort. For the space of a few seconds it was all they could think of. They just stood there, basking in it.
Then they realized that it was not only unbelievably warm and comfortable in that place, but there was a most delicious smell in the air, the aroma of stew, bubbling over a fire.
They sniffed longingly, and then, as though roused from a trance, they looked about them. The walls of the snow house were covered with skins which, while serving to make the place still more snug, served also to give it a more cozy, homelike appearance.