“We’ll camp here.  We’ve gone far enough, and I ain’t goin’ another rod.  We’re a good five mile from them fellers you’re afraid of.”

“All right, I’m satisfied.  You’ve got the axe, go ahead and make a cover,” said Bill.  “Kid, you come with me and help break branches for the bed.  Don’t you loaf neither.  Do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir,” answered Jamie timidly.

It was a relief to stop walking and to feel the man relax the relentless grip upon his arm, and Jamie, meekly enough, began breaking boughs with the man always within striking distance, as though afraid that he might run away and make his escape, though Jamie was quite too tired for that.

The man with the axe cut a stiff pole and trimmed it.  Then he lopped off the lower branches of two spruce trees that stood a convenient distance apart, and laid the pole on a supporting limb of each tree, about four feet from the ground.  This was to form the ridge of a lean-to shelter.  Poles were now cut and formed into a sloping roof by resting one end upon the ridge pole, the other upon the ground, and the poles covered with a thick thatch of branches to exclude the snow.

When this was completed a quantity of dry wood was cut, and in front of the lean-to a fire was lighted.

While the man with the axe was engaged in thatching the roof and lighting the fire and gathering wood, the other turned his attention to the preparation of the bed.

“Don’t you try to break away, now!” he growled at Jamie.  “I’ll shoot you like I would a rat if you do.  Just stand there and hand me them branches, and shake the snow off’n ’em first, too.”

Running was the last thing that Jamie contemplated doing, even though there had been no danger of the man executing his threat.  He was so tired he could scarcely stand upon his feet, and he had eaten nothing since the hurried meal at midday.

At length the bed was laid, and the men sat down within the shelter of the lean-to, and Bill ordered: 

“Git down here, you kid, and set still too.  Don’t you try to leave here.  You know what’s comin’ to you if you do.”

As Jamie meekly and thankfully complied, Bill ran his arm into the bag that had been cached in the tree, and which had been the cause of all of Jamie’s trouble, and drawing forth a bottle removed the cork and took a long pull from its contents.  Making a face as though it did not taste good, he handed it over to Hank, remarking: 

“Have a nip, Hank.  It’ll warm you up and make you feel good.  I don’t like this cruisin’ in the dark.”

Hank accepted the bottle and after drinking from it returned it to the bag.  Then each drew a pipe and a plug of black tobacco from his pocket, and cutting some of the tobacco with the knife rolled it between the palms of his hands, stuffed it into his pipe and lighted it with a brand from the fire.  For several minutes they sat and smoked in silence.