ey are so unromantic! It will sound so poor if ever I tell the story
in a drawing-room!"

Stane laughed again. "There's nothing romantic about straight meat
without change. Those cereals are the best of treasure trove for us."

"Well," conceded the girl laughing with him. "You ought to know, and if
you are satisfied I must be. If these stores will carry us through the
time until we start for civilization I won't grumble."

To Stane the discovery of the stores was a great relief, far greater
than the girl knew. Of starvation he had had no fear, for they were in
a good game country, but he knew the danger of a meat diet alone, and
now that for the time being that danger was eliminated, he was
correspondingly relieved; the more so when, two mornings later, the
door of the hut being opened they beheld a thin powdering of shot-like
snow.

"Winter is here!" said Helen, a little sobered at the sight of the
white pall.

"Yes," he answered. "You found this hut just in time."

No more snow fell for over a fortnight, and during that time, despite
the cold, Stane spent many hours practising walking without crutches.
The fracture had quite knit together, and though his muscles were still
weak, he gained strength rapidly, and as far as possible relieved the
girl of heavier tasks. He chopped a great deal of wood, in preparation
for the bitter cold that was bound to come and stored much of it in the
hut itself. He was indefatigable in setting snares, and one day,
limping in the wood with a rifle, he surprised a young moose-bull and
killed it, and cached the meat where neither the wolves nor the lynxes
could reach it. Then at the close of a dull, dark day the wind began to
blow across the lake, whistling and howling in the trees behind, and
the cold it brought with it penetrated the cabin, driving them closer
to the stove. All night it blew, and once, waking behind the tent
canvas with which the bunk where she slept was screened, the girl
caught a rattle on the wooden walls of the cabin, that sounded as if it
were being peppered with innumerable pellets. In the morning the wind
had fallen, but the cabin was unusually dark, and investigation
revealed that in a single night the snow had drifted to the height of
the parchment window. The cold was intense, and there was no stirring
abroad; indeed, there was no reason for it, since all the wild life of
the forest that they might have hunted, was hidden and still. Seated by
the stove a