so
that he could not get them on again. It sounds like madness on Ky's
part to have let his nor'wester cap get blown away, but it really only
fell from his numbed hands while he was knocking the snow off, and was
instantly swept away in a flurry of snow in the darkness. When the
beam broke in his snow racquet, one of a pair he had absolutely
counted on as beyond accident, he could scarcely get ahead at all.

To stop and try to "boil the kettle" would not only have occupied too
much time, but under the circumstances making a fire was practically
impossible. Neither of the men carried a watch, and the unusual
darkness caused by the thick snow made it impossible for them to tell
what progress they were making. They supposed that surely between the
worst snow "dweys" they would catch sight of some familiar leading
mark, but that proved only another of their small but fatal
miscalculations. The storm never did let up. More than once they
discovered they were out of the track, and, knowing well their danger,
had grudgingly to sacrifice time and strength in groping their way
back to a spot where they could recognize the trail again.

December days are short, anyhow, "down north" and every moment warned
them that the chances of getting out before dark were rapidly
diminishing. All the strength and endurance of which they were capable
were unstintingly utilized to get ahead; but when night finally
overtook them, they knew well that there were several miles to go,
while to move ahead meant almost certainly losing the trail, which
inevitably spelt death. It was only the winter before that Jake
Newman, of Rogers Cove, left his own home after dinner, "just to fetch
in a load of wood," and he wasn't found till three days later, buried
in snow not two hundred yards from his front door, frozen to death.
But if to advance meant death, to stop moving was equally dangerous.
So there was nothing to do but keep moving round and round a big rock
in hopes of living out the long, terrible night.

Meanwhile Sally was under way. Though he knew that the men were crazy
to get back, it was only his surmise that they had started, so he had
to call round at the winter cottages in the bay to make sure. He
realized full well it was a man's job he was about to undertake, and
had no wish to attempt it unnecessarily. As he expected, however, he
found that the houses were all shut up, and such tracks as there were
on the snow about the trail end showed