was not altogether to be regretted since the covering kept out the
cold and allowed them to save their small store of firewood for cooking.
The lack of light was, however, terrible until Old Faithful, whose
experience with Babar the brave made him full of expedients, hit on the
plan of setting Tumbu to work to dig out a hole through the drift, for
they had nothing with them to use as a spade. What he did was to set the
door wide, cut a narrow tunnel with his sword as far as he could reach
in the banked-up snow, and thrust a bit of food in its farther end. Then
Roy brought Tumbu and said:

"Fetch it out, good dog! fetch it out!" while Mirak and Bija looked on
delightedly, calling, "Good dog! Dig it out! dig it out!" Tumbu, the
most playful of animals, soon entered into the fun, and set to work
shovelling out the snow till he found the food. Then another bit was
thrust in, always in an upward direction.

"'Tis slow," said Old Faithful, "but not so slow as trampling down a
road!"

Not half so slow, for after a time Tumbu seemed to understand what they
would be at, and needed no more bits of food to make him dig, but went
on solidly, every now and again giving a yap just to make himself
believe he really _was_ digging something out. In fact, he got on so
fast that Roy, who, as the slimmest of the party, had to keep the tunnel
clear of the dug-out snow, had almost more to do than he could manage.
It was frightfully exciting, and Mirak and Bija were dancing about,
unable to keep still, when a sudden shaft of light that burst into the
dark shed, and a furiously joyful barking that came down the funnel as
if it had been a speaking trumpet, announced Tumbu's arrival in free
air.

"Now, we shall do," said Old Faithful with much importance. "Lo! how one
clever idea begets another. But for Firdoos Gita Makani trampling a road
I should never have thought of a tunnel!"

Roy, however, was already hard at work improving on the idea by widening
the way with Old Faithful's sword, being only let from doing more by
Head-nurse's exclamation that the melting snow would flood the shed.

"Let be, boy!" said Foster-father; "the hot air from within, rising
through the tunnel, will melt the sides by degrees. To-morrow will see
it large enough for you, at any rate, to pass through."

And so it proved. Not next day, but the day after, not only Roy, but
Mirak and Bija, had managed to climb up to the outer world by the
notches which Roy cut