While the dogs were gulping down their food, the boys rummaged through Charley’s gear until they found a heavy wool shirt that the Indian had recently worn. When Black Titan had finished eating, Sandy held the shirt under his nose.
“Charley, Charley,” he kept repeating. “Go find Charley, Titan.” He slapped the husky on the rump. “Go on, Titan!”
Titan began to whine as he sniffed at the shirt. Then he trotted off into the blizzard with his head down. When he had disappeared from sight, Jerry turned to Sandy. “Well, what do we do now?”
“Eat supper and climb into our sleeping bags, I guess. But first I want to fire a couple of shots to see if we can signal Charley.”
He took out the heavy automatic and levered a shell into the firing chamber. Pointing it up in the air, he pulled the trigger. The muzzle flash lit up the night briefly like lightning, but the shot was muffled by the wind and thick curtain of snow. The dogs milled around nervously and began to bark. Sandy fired one more shot, then shoved the gun back in the pocket of his parka.
“I bet those shots didn’t carry over five hundred feet. I feel as though we’re inside a vacuum. I don’t want to waste any more shells until this gale lets up a little. C’mon, let’s sack in for the night.”
They gathered up the sandwiches, coffee thermos, Coleman stove and sleeping bags and crawled into the lean-to. The blowing snow had sealed up all the cracks and even the openings at either end of the makeshift shelter. Sandy burrowed through a drift at the rear of the sled to form an entranceway.
“This back end gets less wind,” he explained to Jerry.
The interior of the lean-to was cramped, but seated with their backs resting against the sides of the sled and their legs crossed in front of them, they were not too uncomfortable. Sandy pumped up the pressure in the one-burner gasoline stove and lit it. He turned the wick up abnormally high until the pale-blue flame became streaked with yellow and began to smoke slightly. Although this was a waste of fuel and reduced the cooking efficiency of the stove, it provided more light and warmth.
“Say, this is all right,” Jerry said, grinning. “It reminds me of the time we went on a Boy Scout camping trip and slept in pup tents.”