"They are out of sight, Hawk," he said at length, turning and crawling to Steve. "The forests cover them for a while. Soon they will be here."
"Then now is the time. Get to work," cried Steve.
The band broke up at once, and leaving their muskets, crept for the most part through the opening. For they had work to do outside, and now was their opportunity to accomplish it while the trees hid them from the enemy. Gathering outside, they piled a wall of snow at the foot of the barrier which filled in the front face of their fort, while some inside took stout stakes and rammed them through the interlaced branches and their thick covering of snow till apertures were left through which a man might thrust a musket barrel and take good aim. Moreover, these openings were at such a height from the floor of the fort that those who made use of them could see to fire over the wall which those outside were busily erecting.
"They are for use if we are driven inside," said Steve, as he watched the men at work. "Now, boys, run the wall as far out on the right as you can, and make openings in it also. We must do all we can to upset the calculations of the enemy, for it would not do for us to fire from the opening of our retreat in the first instance."
Using their hands for the most part, or a thick bough, the trappers swept the deep snow which lay on the rocky ridge into a wall some three feet high, and now that that portion directly in front of the hollow was completed, they pushed on with the work to the right of the fort, where the hummock or rock ran on without interruption, presenting a ledge some ten feet wide, which was perfectly level. To the left the rock fell away suddenly just outside the hollow, and it would have been impossible to erect even a narrow wall.
"Reckon that air a good idea of yours, Cap'n," said Pete, as he beat the snow with his hands to make it bind firmly together. "When them critters gets out'er the trees and makes for the hollow, the snow'll puzzle 'em a little, and they won't be properly sure whereabouts the mouth of the hollow lies. Chances air that not a one of 'em's ever set foot in it. They've likely enough looked up here a score of times jest in the ordinary way of scoutin'. But that won't help 'em much, particular when the hul place is changed by the snow."