In a few minutes thirty good axmen were cutting down trees, saplings and bushes, and more than a hundred others were strengthening the lean-tos, thatching roofs, and making rude but serviceable floors.  Dick, owing to his slight wound, but much against his wish, was ordered into the house, where he spread his blankets near a window, although he could not yet sleep, all the heat of the battle and pursuit not yet having left him.  His nerves still tingling with excitement, he stood at the window and looked out.

He saw the great fire blazing and many persons passing and repassing before the red glow.  He saw the captives crouching together, and the red gleam on the bayonets of the men who guarded them.  He saw Warner and Pendleton go into one of the lean-tos, and he saw Colonel Winchester, accompanied by Shepard and the sergeant, go down the valley toward the exit.

After a while the prisoners moved to the lean-tos, and then everybody took shelter.  The crackle of the big fires changed to a hiss, and more smoke arose from them.  The reason was obvious.  The big flakes of snow had ceased to fall, and big drops of rain were falling in their place.  Reed had been a true prophet, and he had not given his warning too soon.

The rain increased.  Dick heard it driving on the window panes and beating on the roof.  All the fires in the valley were out now, and rising mists and vapors hid nearly everything.  The faint, sliding sound of more snow-falls precipitated by the rain came to his ears.  He realized suddenly how fine a thing it was to be inside four walls, and with it came a great feeling of comfort.  It was the same feeling that he had known often in childhood, when he lay in his bed and heard the storm beat against the house.

There were others in the room—­the floor was almost covered with them—­ but all of them were asleep already, and Dick, wrapping himself in his blanket, joined them, the last thing that he remembered being the swish of the rain against the glass.  He slept heavily and was not awakened until nearly noon, when he saw through the window a world entirely changed.  The rain had melted only a portion of the snow, and when it ceased after sunrise the day had turned much colder, freezing every thing hard and tight.  The surface of valley, slopes and ridges was covered with a thick armor of ice, smooth as glass, and giving back the rays of a brilliant sun in colors as vivid and varied as those of a rainbow.  Every tree and bush, to the last little twig, was sheathed also in silver, and along the slopes the forests of dwarfed cedar and pines were a vast field of delicate and complex tracery.

It was a glittering and beautiful world, but cold and merciless.  Dick saw at once that the whole force, captors and captured, was shut in for the time.  It was impossible for horses to advance over a field of ice, and it was too difficult even for men to be considered seriously.  There was nothing to do but remain in the valley until circumstances allowed them to move, and reflection told him they would not lose much by it.  They had done the errand on which they were sent, and there was little work left in the great valley itself.