"But the wolves have gone and they're not likely to return very soon."
"Well, I've got to get some more wood in first anyhow, so we won't decide till that's done and perhaps he'll be back then."
The sun would not be up for another two hours or more, but it was not so dark that he felt obliged to wait. But once outside the fringe of trees where the full strength of the storm struck him, he doubted his ability to accomplish his purpose. But he knew that there was plenty of dead wood where they had been working before and it was only a short distance away. At every step he sank nearly to his waist and, before he had gone twenty feet, he decided he had better go back and put on his snow-shoes. Fortunately the wind was directly in his face and he knew that, although it took about all his strength to make headway against it, it would be of great help when it came to dragging the wood back.
"I'd never be able to drag much of a stick against this wind," he muttered.
He remembered a large spruce which had fallen a little to the right of where they had obtained the wood before and which they had not touched and he felt sure that, could he but find it, he could get enough to at least last through the day and the next night.
He located the tree without much trouble and was glad to see that the snow was not quite up to the trunk. This made it comparatively easy to chop off the thick branches and he set to work after standing his rifle, which he had not dared to leave behind, against the butt of the tree. He forced himself to work with exceeding care as he well knew the danger of a slip of the axe under the circumstances and should he cut himself they would be in a plight ten times more serious than at present. When he judged that he had cut as much as he could drag he hastened the butts of the branches together with a piece of rope and, picking up his rifle, started back. It was only a little over a hundred feet back to the fire, but he was all but winded by the time he got there with his load.
"Coming along fine," he shouted sticking his head into the tepee before starting back for a second load.
"How's the storm?" Jack asked.
"Still humming."
"No sign of a let up?"