ow before morning."

Seeing that he had made up his mind, Edgar raised no more objections,
and in another few moments George disappeared into a haze of driving
snow. When he left the trail he found walking more difficult than he
had expected, but though it was hard to see beyond a few yards, he had
the bluff to guide him and he kept along the edge of it until the trees
vanished suddenly. Then he stopped, buffeted by the wind, to gather
breath and fix clearly in his mind the salient features of the open
space that he must cross.

If he could walk straight for half a mile, he would strike a small
hollow and by following it he would reach a tract of cultivated ground.
This, he thought, should be marked by the absence of the taller clumps
of grass and the short willow scrub which here and there broke through
the snow. There would then be a stretch of about two hundred acres to
cross before he found the little shack, whose owner had gone away to
work on the railroad during the winter. He expected to have some
trouble in reaching it, but he must get the letters, and he set off
again, breaking through the snow-crust in places, and trying to
estimate the time he took.

A quarter of an hour passed and, as there was no sign of the ravine, he
began to wonder whether he had deviated much from his chosen line. In
another few minutes he was getting anxious; and then suddenly he
plunged knee-deep into yielding snow. It got deeper at the next step
and he knew that he had reached the shallow depression, which had been
almost filled up by the drifts. He must cross it, and the effort this
entailed left him gasping when he stopped again on the farther side.

It was still possible to retrace his steps, because he could hardly
fail to strike the bluff he had left, but there was no doubt that to go
on would be perilous. If he missed the shack, he might wander about
the prairie until he sank down, exhausted; and after a day of fatiguing
labor he knew that he could not long face the wind and frost. There
was, however, every sign of a wild storm brewing; it might be several
days before he could secure the letters if he turned back, and such a
delay was not to be thought of.

He went on, following the ravine where he could trace its course, which
was not always possible, until he decided that he must have reached the
neighborhood of the farm. There was, however, nothing to indicate that
he had done so. He could see only a few yard