For two hours he followed tirelessly over the trail, which became more and more distinct as he proceeded, showing that he was rapidly gaining on his comrades.

But even now, though the trail was fresher and deeper, so disguised had it become by falling snow that a passing hunter might have thought a moose or caribou had passed that way.
At the end of the third hour, by which time he figured that he had made at least ten miles, Wabi sat down to rest, and to refresh himself with the lunch which he had taken from the camp that morning.

He was surprised at Rod's endurance.

That Mukoki and the white boy were still three or four miles ahead of him he did not doubt, unless they, too, had stopped for dinner.

This, on further thought, he believed was highly probable.
The wilderness about him was intensely still.