"Now," said he, with a vengeful tone in his voice, "just let me get a shot at those or'nary curs!"
Later, Aleck came back, reporting no birds, but bringing a small pickerel.
"But I saw another flock of cross-bills, and I'm going to take my 'pitchfork' and go after them," Jimmy added, eagerly; and at once went out, while Katy put on her hat and started for a short walk.
"Aleck," said Tug, when they were alone, "I have wanted a good chance to talk with you about the fix we're in. I feel sure that, snug as we are, it's no good to stay here."
"How are we going to get away? Our boat is useless for ice travel, now that the sledge is gone, even if we save her in decent condition, which we must see about this afternoon."
"I have been looking at that little scow down on the shore. She is big enough to carry us in water, and I believe we could put a couple of low runners on her bottom, so as to move over an ice-field. Come with me and have a look at her."
So the two lads went down to the old boat, and looked her carefully over, discussing all the repairs she would need, and how they could be made.
"But why don't you think we could stay here longer?" Aleck asked, after a time.
"Because," his companion replied, "we have almost no ammunition and almost no fishing-tackle. In a week from now we should have to live wholly on what we could catch in fishing and by traps, and we get so little now that I think it foolish to risk it if we can get a chance to escape. I reckon it'll freeze up hard again in a few days, but for the last time this winter. Probably the ice'll break up so badly next time it thaws that we couldn't sledge on it; and after that, you know, come the long, stormy months of spring, when, if we tried sailing, our boat wouldn't keep afloat with four people in it during a journey across the lake. If we can't get away over the ice before the next break-up, I believe we're goners."
"It can't be very far to the mainland; but the weather has always been so thick I never could see far southward," Aleck remarked.
"It's clear to-day," said Tug. "Let's go and take a look."
Inspired with hope, the two comrades, forgetful of everything else, hastened up the hillside, and soon reached the pinnacle of rocks that formed their lookout.