Chapter 71. Sackett's Harbour
It was hours before Rolf was sure that he had stopped the
pursuit, and the thing that finally set his mind at rest was the
rising wind that soon was a raging and drifting snow storm. "Oh,
blessed storm!" he said in his heart, as he marked all trail
disappear within a few seconds of its being made. And he thought:
"How I cursed the wind that held me back -- really from being
made prisoner. How vexed I was at that ducking in the river, that
really saved my despatches from the enemy. How thankful I am now
for the storm that a little while back seemed so bitterly cruel."
That forenoon they struck the big bend of the river and now did
not hesitate to use the easy travel on the ice as far as
Rensselaer Falls, where, having got their bearings from a
settler, they struck across the country through the storm, and at
night were encamped some forty miles from Ogdensburg.
Marvellously few signs of game had they seen in this hard trip;
everything that could hide away was avoiding the weather. But in
a cedar bottom land near Cranberry Lake they found a "yard" that
seemed to be the winter home of hundreds of deer.
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