ck the outfit?"
she asked, after a little. "How can we get out of here with all the
stuff we'll have?"

"We'll manage it," he assured lightly. "We'll get out with our furs
and gold, all right, and we won't go hungry on the way, even if we have
no pack train. Leave it to me."

CHAPTER XXI

JACK FROST WITHDRAWS

All through the month of January each evening, as dusk folded its
somber mantle about the meadow, the wolves gathered to feast on the
dead horses, till Hazel's nerves were strained to the snapping point.
Continually she was reminded of that vivid episode, of which she had
been the unwitting cause. Sometimes she would open the door, and from
out the dark would arise the sound of wolfish quarrels over the feast,
disembodied snappings and snarlings. Or when the low-swimming moon
shed a misty glimmer on the open she would peer through a thawed place
on the window-pane, and see gray shapes circling about the half-picked
skeletons. Sometimes, when Bill was gone, and all about the cabin was
utterly still, one, bolder or hungrier than his fellows, would trot
across the meadow, drawn by the scent of the meat. Two or three of
these Hazel shot with her own rifle.

But when February marked another span on the calendar the wolves came
no more. The bones were clean.

There was no impending misfortune or danger that she could point to or
forecast with certitude. Nevertheless, struggle against it as she
might, knowing it for pure psychological phenomena arising out of her
harsh environment. Hazel suffered continual vague forebodings. The
bald, white peaks seemed to surround her like a prison from which there
could be no release. From day to day she was harassed by dismal
thoughts. She would wake in the night clutching at her husband. Such
days as he went out alone she passed in restless anxiety. Something
would happen. What it would be she did not know, but to her it seemed
that the bleak stage was set for untoward drama, and they two the
puppets that must play.

She strove against this impression with cold logic; but reason availed
nothing against the feeling that the North had but to stretch forth its
mighty hand and crush them utterly. But all of this she concealed from
Bill. She was ashamed of her fears, the groundless uneasiness. Yet it
was a constant factor in her daily life, and it sapped her vitality as
surely and steadily as lack of bodily nourishment could have done.

Had there been i