Had they known which way Lawler had gone when he left the Circle L they would have searched for him despite the frigid danger that gripped the world.

But Lawler had gone, leaving no word; and there was nothing the men could do.
Through a window in the Circle L ranchhouse anxious eyes peered also--those of a gray-haired woman with a kindly, gentle face into which, as the long days passed, came lines that had not been there before.

And yet in the watching eyes was a gleam of hope--of calm confidence in the big son who was somewhere in the white waste--a conviction that he was safe, that he would survive and return to her..