It was a long time before I could find my rifle, even with Percy’s help, and in consequence, when I did at length get back to the fort, it was so dark in the narrow cañon that I could not see my hand before my face. However, I knew my way into the sentry-box well enough, and there I took up my station again until, an hour or so later, Percy came up to relieve me.
After I had had my supper, Jack and I carried all our blankets up to the fort; for it was our intention to sleep there that night. We had had a hard day and were very tired, and as we expected another day as hard on the morrow we had decided to go without a sentinel for that one night, trusting to the ever-watchful Ulysses to give us notice if anyone should approach the bars.
For half an hour we sat about the little fire we had built inside the fort, while Percy related to us how he had accidentally stumbled upon the bear that day, and how the bear had charged upon him without provocation—a very unusual thing. After which Jack explained his part of the affair, telling us how, when he returned to camp, he had espied Ulysses and the bear standing in the midst of the valley, and how, guessing that Percy must be in trouble, he had run to help him,—never thinking that he should find me there as well.
“You must have been in a pretty awkward position, Percy, about the time Ulysses arrived,” said he.
“I was,” Percy responded. “I was badly scared, I can tell you. Ulysses, old chap,” putting his arm around the dog, who was sitting with his chin in the air, blinking at the fire, “whenever I get my share of that gold we can’t find, you shall have a medal. Just you remember, now.”
“I’m afraid he’ll have to go without his medal, then,” said Jack; “because we must get out of here to-morrow as early as possible. I don’t like the look of things. I’m rather afraid the snow may catch us down here. Come, let us turn in; we shall want all the sleep we can get.”
It was still pitch-dark when Jack’s voice roused us next morning.
“Tumble up, you fellows, tumble up!” he cried. “No time to waste! Snow in the air! We must dig out at once!”
He was right about there being no time to waste. Already the snow, fluttering into the fort, was covering our beds with ominous rapidity, and, to our dismay, when we jumped down from the ledge we felt—for we could not see—that the ground was carpeted with snow a foot thick, while the continuous pattering upon our hands and faces proclaimed only too plainly that the storm we had feared was upon us in earnest.
As it would be useless to attempt to find the horses in the dark, we set about the difficult task of getting breakfast first; nor was it until we had finished that meal that there was daylight enough to enable us to see clearly how hard it was snowing. Jack was alarmed.