About it there were no signs of life.

With unusual eagerness Jean scanned the surface of the snow, and when he saw that there was trail of neither man nor beast in the unbroken crust a look of relief came into his face.
"_Mon Dieu_, so far I have saved my hide," he grinned.

"Now, M'seur, look for yourself and see if Jean Croisset has not kept his word!" A dozen steps had taken him through a screen of shrub to the opposite slope of the ridge.

With outstretched arm he pointed down into the plain, and as Howland's eyes followed its direction he stood throbbing with sudden excitement.

Less than a quarter of a mile away, sheltered in a dip of the plain, were three or four log buildings rising black and desolate out of the white waste.