hundred steps seemed to take an
immeasurable length of time and great effort. Like the ache of a tooth
came the first warning of snowshoe cramp in his legs. In the black night
he grinned. He knew what it meant--a warning as deadly as swimmer's
cramp in deep water. If he continued much longer he would be crawling on
his hands and knees.

Quickly he turned in the direction of the timber. He had traveled three
hours, he thought, since abandoning his cabin to the flames. Another
half hour, with the caution of slower, shorter steps, brought him to the
timber. Luck was with him and he cried aloud to Peter as he felt himself
in the darkness of a dense cover of spruce and balsam. He freed himself
from his entangled snowshoes and went on deeper into the shelter. It
became warmer and they could feel no longer a breath of the wind.

He unloaded his pack and drew from it a jackpine torch, dried in his
cabin and heavy with pitch. Shortly the flare of this torch lighted up
their refuge for a dozen paces about them. In the illumination of it,
moving it from place to place, he gathered dry fire wood and with his
axe cut down green spruce for the smouldering back-fire that would last
until morning. By the time the torch had consumed itself the fire was
burning, and where Jolly Roger had scraped away the snow from the thick
carpet of spruce needles underfoot he piled a thick mass of balsam
boughs, and in the center of the bed he buried himself, wrapped warmly
in his blankets, and with Peter snuggled close at his side.

Through dark hours the green spruce fire burned slowly and steadily. For
a long time there was wailing of wind out in the open. But at last it
died away, and utter stillness filled the world. No life moved in these
hours which followed the giving up of the big storm's last gasping
breath. Slowly the sky cleared. Here and there a star burned through.
But Jolly Roger and Peter, deep in the sleep of exhaustion, knew nothing
of the change.

CHAPTER XVI

It was Peter who roused Jolly Roger many hours later; Peter nosing about
the still burning embers of the fire, and at last muzzling his master's
face with increasing anxiety. McKay sat up out of his nest of balsam
boughs and blankets and caught the bright glint of sunlight through
the treetops. He rubbed his eyes and stared again to make sure. Then he
looked at his watch. It was ten o'clock and peering in the direction of
the open he saw the white edge of it glisten