“At this, assuming an angry air, I asked them why they should so concern themselves about what was entirely my own business; and I gave them plainly to understand that I wanted no interference.
“Changing their tone at once, and deprecating my warmth, they called to my notice the storm that was gathering overhead.
“They were right; the signs could hardly be mistaken. The little bursts and eddies of drift that rose fitfully from the lake’s white surface; the long, whispering sob of the gusts that woke at intervals behind the forests; the heavy but vague massing of clouds all over the sky, which at a little distance was confused with the earth by a sort of pearly haze—all portended a hurricane of snow before many hours.
“With reason on their side, and the evident desire of my wounded Mike as well, our hosts urged delay till the storm should have spent its fury.
“But silencing Mike with a glance, I rejected politely, but decidedly, their proffered shelter, and made ready the team for a start.
“As soon as I had begun to tackle the dogs, the younger of our hosts suddenly took up his gun and left the cabin, saying he thought he’d better visit a few traps before the storm set in.
“He turned, I noticed, down the shore of the lake, parallel to the direction in which our own course lay.
“The older man speeded our departure with all seeming good-will, announcing that he only waited to see us safely off, and would then follow his partner to examine the traps.
“Once underway I retailed my suspicions to Mike, who, heedless as he was, had been putting this and that together during the last few minutes. Bitterly he bewailed his helplessness; and many and varied were the maledictions which from his couch in the blankets he hurled upon our prospective foes. At his suggestion we shunned the wooded shores, taking our course as nearly as possible down the middle of the lake.
“With my rifle in one hand and my long-lashed whip in the other, I urged the team to such a pace as it strained my running powers to keep up with.