“It is no laughing matter, sir,” Stanislas said gravely.

“They cannot climb up here, Stanislas.”

“No, but they can keep us here.  It will be dark in an hour, and likely enough they will watch us all night.”

“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.

“This is awful, Stanislas.  I do not think we can last on till morning.”

“I begin to have doubts myself, sir.  Perhaps it would be better to leap down and make a fight of it.”

“We might shoot some of them first,” Charlie said.  “How many charges have you?”

“I have only two, besides one in the barrel.”

“And I have only three,” Charlie said.  “Powder has run very short.  The captain was saying, yesterday, that we must send to the village and try to get some more.  Still, six shots will help us.”

“Not much, sir.  There must be thirty or forty of them now.  I have seen some come from the other way.  I suppose they were part of the pack that followed the horses.”

Charlie sat for some time thinking.  Then he exclaimed: 

“I think this is a dead tree.”

“It is, sir.  I noticed it when we climbed up.  The head has gone, and I think it must have been struck with lightning last summer.”