d be struggling in the drift.
She must drive the other into it also. She therefore rose
and called to the second villain, on whose evil face
there was an unmistakable grin. Like Bastien, and most
of his kind, he had no objections to seeing his own
friends suffer so long as he himself came by no harm.

"Ho, you there!" she cried in apparent indignation. "Don't
you see your friend in the drift? Why don't you give him
a hand out? Are you afraid?"

But the second villain was too old a bird to be caught
with chaff, and replied by putting his mitted hand to
one side of his nose, at the same time closing his right
eye. He bore eloquent testimony to the universality of
the great sign language.

"You are a coward!" she exclaimed, disgusted with the
man, and at the failure of her little scheme.

"A nice comrade, you! I wonder you ever had the spirit
to rebel!"

This was too much for the rogue's equanimity, and he
launched into such a torrent of abuse that the girl was
obliged to put her fingers in her ears. He, however,
went to the trouble of crawling over the snowdrift and
picking up the gun which his worthy mate had dropped when
he broke through the crust By this time the first villain
had managed to extricate himself, and had moved into the
clear space opposite the front door of the hut The eyes
of the two were now fairly glowing with rage, and they
prepared to storm the position. One of them was in the
act of giving a back to the other when. Dorothy appeared
on the scene with the sapling.

"Don't be silly," she cried. "If you do anything of that
sort I shall use the pole. Go round to the back; there's
a barrel there, and if you can set it up on end against
the wall, I'll come down quietly."

They looked up at her; they did not quite understand all
she said, but the girl's face seemed so innocent and
unconcerned that they strode round the hut, still keeping
their evil eyes upon Dorothy and her weapon of defence.
It must be confessed that Dorothy had some qualms of
conscience in thus introducing them to Bruin, but her
own life was perhaps at stake, and they had brought the
introduction on themselves. Still, they had a gun, and
there were two of them, so it would be a case of a fair
field and no favour.

Bruin heard them coming and stood on his hind legs to
greet them. Next moment the three were face to face. It
would have been difficult to imagine a more undignified
encounter. The big breed's legs seemed to co