“Not until I’m snug in my bedroll,” Jerry begged.
Sandy looked worried. “Poor Charley. He’s not going to be very snug tonight. No bedroll, no food. Gee, I wish I knew what happened to him.”
“What makes it worse,” Jerry said gloomily, “is that it’s our fault. If we hadn’t dragged so far behind, he wouldn’t have had to go looking for us.”
The boys finished their sandwiches and coffee in subdued silence, staring out into the stormy night through the diminishing black hole of the entranceway.
“You know,” Sandy said suddenly, “in another hour we’ll be snowed in tight inside this lean-to.”
Jerry surveyed the drifting snow anxiously. “You’re right. Like a tomb. We’ll be able to get out, though, won’t we?”
Sandy reached over and enlarged the opening with one hand. “Oh, yes. It’s as light as powder.”
After they had finished eating and wrapped up the garbage, they prepared to bed down for the night. “We’d better do this one at a time,” Sandy suggested. “We’d only be in each other’s way moving around in here together. I’ll go outside until you’re all settled. You lie with your head up at the front of the sled. I’ll lie the opposite way. That way we’ll have more room.”
Crawling on hands and knees, Sandy pushed through the drift that was blocking up the opening. A furious blast of bitter cold wind took his breath away as he got to his feet and sent him reeling back from the sled. It was even warmer inside the lean-to than he had realized. He recalled that Tagish Charley had a powerful flashlight in his gear and walked through knee-high snow to the front of the sled to look for it. It would be wise to keep it handy in the lean-to, he decided. He found the light easily and turned it on to see how the dogs were making out. They were all huddled together behind the windbreak of the sled, growling and shifting around restlessly. As the flash beam swept over them, a few cringed and bared their fangs. Their behavior distressed Sandy, who had expected that by now they would all be cozily balled up in holes and snoring peacefully. He skirted around them and walked back to consult with Jerry. Beaming the light on the lean-to, he saw that the snow was mounding it over like an igloo. Once more he had to dig the snow away from the entrance before he could get in.
When he crawled inside, he saw that Jerry was stretched out in his sleeping bag, the hooded cover zipped up tightly around his head. Only his eyes, nose and mouth were showing.