ees and block up our tunnel with beams, leaving three
or four inches between each to fire through or use our spears."

"That is a very good plan," Luka said. "We should be quite safe then."

It took them some hours' work to carry out the idea. The middle of the
tunnel was closed by a row of pointed stakes, some four inches in
diameter, driven deep into the snow and reaching up to the roof of the
shelter. An opening of a foot wide was left in the middle, another stake
being placed beside it in readiness to fill it up if required. The
operation was completed by the light of the fire, as it was pitch dark
by the time it was done. Then another meal was cooked and eaten, and the
brands carried below, where, at the bottom of the descent, the fire was
now kindled. The dogs had for some time been growling angrily in the
upper passage, and the fire was no sooner alight below than they broke
into a chorus of fierce barking.

"We had better bring them down here, Luka, and fill up the opening. I
think the wolves must be gathering in numbers."

Going up again they sent the dogs down, firmly lashed two cross-bars to
the others, and to these lashed the pole they had left in readiness,
thus completing the grating across the tunnel. As they worked the smoke
from the fire below curled up round them. A few months before Godfrey
would have found it almost insupportable, but by this time he had, like
the natives, become so accustomed to it that it affected him very
little. Still he said to Luka: "You had better break off the hot ends of
the sticks so as to have a red fire only for the present, the smoke
makes my eyes water so that I can scarcely see. Now the sooner those
fellows come to get their first lesson the better."

Kneeling by the grating, with his gun in his hand and his spear beside
him, Godfrey gazed out, and could presently distinguish the outline of a
number of moving figures.

"I can see their eyes at the entrance," he said. "Shall I give them a
shot, or will you send an arrow into them?"

"You fire," Luka replied. "Bow makes no noise, gun will frighten them;
besides, I have only twenty arrows and they would get broken. Better
keep them till there is need."

Godfrey levelled his gun, which was charged with buck-shot, and fired
both barrels. Terrific yells and howls followed, and the opening was
clear in a moment, though Godfrey could see two or three dark figures on
the snow. There was a sound of whimpering and snarlin