How long they had been plunged in deep slumber, naturally, they could not tell. Night and day were the same to them; and as Dallas said, from the hunger they felt they might have been hibernating in a torpid state for a week, for aught they knew.

They ate heartily of the biscuits, Abel’s throat being far less painful, and once more the dull sound of the shovel began in a hollow, muffled way.

A couple of hours must have passed, at the end of which time so much snow had accumulated at the foot of the sloping shaft that Dallas was compelled to descend and help his fellow-prisoner.

“This will not do,” he said. “We must get out some more provisions before we bury the sledges entirely.”

“There is enough biscuit to keep us alive for a couple of days,” replied Abel. “Let us chance getting out, and not stop to encumber ourselves wi. . . Read More