“Did the wolves attack you?  Oh, how truly horrible!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, with so much genuine sympathy that both men winced under it, hardened offenders though they were; for they knew very well that they deserved the fate which had so nearly fallen upon them.

“About ten of the cowards closed in on us as we were going through a patch of cotton woods, where we couldn’t move fast because of catching our snow-shoes,” Oily Dave went on, winking and blinking in a nervous fashion.  “And we were fairly cornered before we knew where we were.  One great brute came at me straight in the face.  I knocked him off with my fist and fumbled for my barker, but shot wild and did no more damage than to singe the hair off another brute’s back; but I managed to edge a bit closer to Stee, who was getting it rough, and hadn’t even a chance to draw his knife.  But we should have been down and done for to a dead certainty, if it hadn’t been for Miss Radford and Miles.  They let the dogs loose from the sledge when they heard the rumpus, and that turned the scale in our favour.  That great white dog with the black patch on its back came tearing into the cotton woods roaring like a bull, and then I can tell you there was a stampede among the brutes that were baiting us.”  Oily Dave drew a long breath as he finished his narration, but the other man groaned.

“Katherine, what were you doing so far away from home at this time of night?” gasped Mrs. Burton, in a shocked tone, as her sister came into the room.  “Why, the wolves might have attacked you.”

“Not likely; we had the dogs with us, you see.  But we had to go about three miles along the trail to bring home the things I had to leave behind when Father had his accident,” said Katherine, as she stood beside the stove slowly unwinding her wraps.  Now that the strain and excitement were over, she looked white and tired, but her face was set in hard, stern lines, which for the time seemed to add years to her age.

“It is dreadful that you should have to go out at night like that.  Wouldn’t to-morrow have done as well?” asked Mrs. Burton in a tone of distress.

“No,” replied Katherine slowly, as she wrestled with an obstinate fastening of her coat, keeping her gaze carefully on the ground the while.  “We were almost too late as it was.  A wolf had found out the cache and was beginning to tear the packages to pieces, in spite of my care in turning the hand sledge upside down on the top of them.”

Oily Dave rose to his feet with a jerky movement.  “I think we had best be moving now,” he said gruffly.  “Perhaps you’d lend us a couple of the dogs to help us down to Seal Cove; we’ll give ’em a good feed when we get there.  But neither Stee nor I can face three miles’ tramp without something to protect us.”

“Yes, you can have two of the dogs on leash; but remember they are dreadfully tired, poor things, for they have had a long, hard day.  You had better leave your sledge here to-night, then there will be no temptation for you to let the dogs draw you,” Katherine said, in a hard tone.