One long strain, a creaking sound, and then a sudden giving-way and starting, and the snow began to crunch, crunch, beneath the wide, smooth runners of the sleigh. Vosh walked beside his team, and drove it away around in a semicircle, carefully avoiding trees and stumps, until he and his load were once more in the road, and on their way home.
"Hark!" exclaimed Susie just then. "Was that the report of a gun, or was it the sound of another tree falling?"
"Guess it was a gun," said Vosh. "It's one of the boys shooting at something. Plenty of game, if they can hit it."
If they had been listening with any kind of attention, they might have heard a similar sound before, although the place where the boys were was at some distance from what Vosh called "the clearing."
Corry and Porter had pushed on after Ponto as best they could; but he had not stirred up for them any game in the thick, gloomy forest.
"No rabbits here," said Porter.
"Sometimes there are a few," said Corry; "but this isn't the place. We're most there now: we'd better load up."
"The guns,—aren't they loaded?"
"No. We never leave a charge in. Father says a gun's always safe when it's empty."
Corry put the butt of his gun on the ground while he spoke, and Porter watched him narrowly.