Page 227 - A Jacobite Exile

"Then we had better shoot two of them, and jump down with our hatchets.
Keeping back to back, we ought to be able to face ten wolves."

"Yes, if that were all; but see, here come three or four more, and the dozen

will soon swell to a score. No, we shall have to wait here all night, and
probably for some time tomorrow, for the men are not likely to find us very
early, and they will hardly hear our pistols unless some of them happen to

come in this direction."

"Do you think, if we shoot two or three of them, the rest will go?"

"Certainly not. It will be all the worse. Their comrades would at once tear

them to pieces and devour them, and the scent of blood would very soon
bring others to the spot."

"Well, if we have got to wait here all night, Stanislas, we had better choose
the most comfortable place we can, at once, before it gets dark. We must

mind we don't go to sleep and tumble off."

"There will be no fear of our sleeping," Stanislas said. "The cold will be too
great for that. We shall have to keep on swinging our hands and feet, and
rubbing our noses, to prevent ourselves from getting frostbitten."

"Well, I have never felt the cold in these clothes," Charlie said.

"No, sir, but you have never been out at night, sitting cramped on a tree."

Hour after hour passed. Even in the darkness they could see the wolves
lying in the snow below them, occasionally changing their position,

keeping close together for warmth, and often snarling or growling angrily,
as one or two shifted their position, and tried to squeeze in so as to get into
a warm spot.

The cold was intense and, in spite of swinging his legs and arms, Charlie

felt that his vital heat was decreasing.