beasts were driven down from the hills by hunger, and
when they smelled the fat bacon frying, the woods couldn't hold them,"
observed David. "I have always heard that a hungry wolf could smell
something to eat on another planet."

"Well, what are we going to do?" demanded Nora. "If we leave this
charming abode of Jean's, we shall be eaten alive, and if we stay in it
we shall starve."

"You won't starve for a while yet, child. You have only just eaten. You
remind me of the story of the people who were locked up in a vault in a
cemetery. They divided the candle into notches and decided to eat a
notch apiece every day. They had just finished the last notch, and were
expecting to die at any moment of starvation, when somebody unlocked the
door, and how long do you suppose they had been shut up!"

"Several days, I suppose," answered Nora, "since they appeared to have
eaten several notches."

"Not at all," replied David. "Only three hours."

"I'd rather be in a vault, with the dead, than out here," observed
Hippy.

"Are we such poor company as all that, Fatty!" laughed Reddy.

"I've made a great find," announced Tom Gray in the midst of their
chatter. He was standing on a bench examining something on a shelf
suspended from the ceiling.

"What?" demanded the others in great excitement.

"A pair of snowshoes," he answered.

There was a disappointed silence.

"Well, don't all speak at once," said Tom at last. "Don't you agree with
me that it's a great find?"

"We are sorry we can't enthuse," answered David, "but we fail to see how
snow shoes can help us out of our present predicament."

"Nobody here knows how to use them," continued Reddy, "and even if he
did, he couldn't out-run a pack of wolves."

"I know how to use them," exclaimed Tom. "I learned it in Canada a few
winters ago, but I will admit I couldn't beat the wolves in a race.
However, the shoes may come in handy yet."

Just then one of the wolves threw his body against the door and the
small cabin shook with the force of the blow.

"By Jove!" exclaimed David, "I thought they had us then. Another blow
like that and the old latch might give way."

They looked about them for something to place against the door, but
there was not a stick of furniture in the room. Even the bed, in one
corner, was made of pine boughs and skins.

"I wonder how there happens to be only five wolves," said Anne. "I
thought they went about in large packs."

"They are pro