But John looked longest at the big rifle.

He felt that if need be he could hold the lodge against almost anything except cannon.
"It's the first time I ever had a whole armory to myself," he said, looking around proudly at the noble array.
But he was quite sure that no one could come for days except Muller, and the mystery of the forester's absence again troubled him, although not very long.

Another look at the driving snow, and, wrapping himself in his blankets, he fell asleep to the music of the storm.

John awoke once far in the night, and his sense of comfort, as he lay between the blankets on the sofa that he had dragged into the gunroom, was so great that he merely luxuriated there for a little while and listened to the roar of the storm, which he could yet hear, despite the thickness of the walls.

But he rose at last, and went to the window.
The thick snowy blast was still driving past, and his eyes could not penetrate it more than a dozen feet.