Here be crouched a long time, looking and listening attentively; but it seemed that the visitors had no fears.

Why should they, when there was nothing that they need fear in this frozen wilderness?
Henry stole a little nearer.

It had been a snug, trim little settlement.
Perhaps twenty-five or thirty people had lived there, literally hewing a home out of the forest.

His heart throbbed with a fierce hatred and, anger against those who had spoiled all this, and his gloved finger crept to the hammer of his rifle.
The night was intensely cold.

The mercury was far below zero, and a wind that had begun to rise cut like the edge of a knife.