'And ride direct for the nearest village, Excellency,' advised Chu-Li. 'For one cannot say that the wolves have gone far. There may be a forest close at hand, and were they in hiding there, and to catch us in the open, then indeed all our struggling would have been in vain. With no hollow to help us we should quickly be torn to pieces.'
'Then before we go far we had better have a good look round. I shall climb to the top of the hill now. It is quite clear, and the sun looks as if it would appear. No doubt I shall be able to see a long way, and if there is a wood anywhere near I shall catch sight of it.'
David left Jong squatted over the fire, preparing a much-needed morning meal, and issued from the cave. The snow outside was a couple of feet deep, while here and there, where the wind had swept it into drifts, it was as much as twenty feet from top to base. Everywhere adjacent to the cave were the foot-marks of the wolves, with a distinctly outlined circle where they had squatted between their attacks. As for the beasts themselves, there was not a living one in sight. Only numerous half-knawed bones could be seen, for the ravenous beasts who had escaped the bullets of the defenders had eaten everything else.
'I couldn't have believed it possible unless I had actually seen such a result with my own eyes,' said David to himself. 'People in Old England would probably smile incredulously if I told them the yarn how a pack had simply devoured twenty or more of their fellows when knocked over by our weapons. But here's the evidence, as clear as one can wish it. Now for the hill top.'
It was hard work scrambling up, and many a time he slid down many yards on the surface of the hard-frozen snow. But by sticking to the task he at length reached the top. It presented in ordinary times, no doubt, a sharp ridge, that was now smoothly rounded by the snow, and which ran north and south for some four hundred yards. It was the only high ground to be seen, so that David and his little party were peculiarly lucky to have come upon it. And its elevation gave one a wonderful view over the snow-clad landscape, that glistened and shone now under a wintery sun. As far as the eye could see the white expanse was unbroken, save in one direction where there was a smear of black across it, from the neighbourhood of which smoke was rising.