Yet on their backs was life, and strength,
and warmth.
Within the flour sacks were all the potentialities of existence.
They could not but think of this, and it was not strange, that
which came to pass. They had fallen by the side of a great timber
jam where a thousand cords of firewood waited the match. Near by
was an air hole through the ice. Kah-Chucte looked on the wood
and the water, as did Gowhee; then they looked at each other.
Never a word was spoken. Gowhee struck a fire; Kah-Chucte filled
a tin cup with water and heated it; Joe babbled of things in
another land, in a tongue they did not understand.
They mixed flour with the warm water till it was a thin paste,
and of this they drank many cups. They did not offer any to Joe;
but he did not mind. He did not mind anything, not even his
moccasins, which scorched and smoked among the coals.
A crystal mist of snow fell about them, softly, caressingly,
wrapping them in clinging robes of white. And their feet would
have yet trod many trails had not destiny brushed the clouds
aside and cleared the air. Nay, ten minutes' delay would have
been salvation.
Sitka Charley, looking back, saw the pillared smoke of their
fire, and guessed.
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