The Glenwood post. (Glenwood Springs, Colo.) 1897-current, 1921-02-05

view of his camp. But he knew that
the chance of Dan starting upon any
such journey before the snow had
melred was not one In thousand. To
be caught In the Divide in the winter
means to be showed in as completely
as the Innuits Of upper Greenland. No
word could pass except by man on
snOwshOes.
Yet If the chance did come, II the
house should he left unguarded, 1t
might pay Cranston to make an i'm
mediate search. Dan would have no
reason for supposing that Cranstor
suspected his possession of the let
ters; he would not be particularly
watchful, and would probably pigeon
hole them until spring in Lemons
desk.
And the truth was that Cranst0n
had reasoned out the situation almost
perfectly. When Dan awakened in
the morning, and the snow lay already
a foot deep over the wilderness world,
he knew that he would have no chance
to act upon the Cranston case until
the SHOWS melted in the spring. So
he pushed all thought Of 1t out of his
mind and turned his attention to more
pleasant subjects. II was true that ne
read the documents over twice as he
Law in bed. Then he tied them into a
neat packet and put them away where
they would be quickly available. Then
he thrust his head out of the window
and let the great snowfiakes sift down
upon his face 1t was winter at last,
The season that he loved.
He didn't stir from the house that
first day of the storm. Snowbird ana
he found plenty of pleasant things to
do and talk about before the roaring
fire that he built in the CRATE. He was
glad of the great pile of wood that
lay outside the door. 1t meant life It.
self, in this season. Then Snowblrd
led him TO the windows. and they
watched the white drifts pile up over
the low underbrush.
When finally the snowstorm ceased,
five days later, the whole face Of the
wilderness was changed. The buck
brush was mostly covered, the fences
were out of sight; the forest seemed
clear, clean sweep of white, broken
only by an occasional tall thicket and
by the great snow-covered trees.
When the clouds blew away, and
the air grew clear, the temperature
began to fall. Dan had no way OF
knowing how low 1t went. Thermome-
tiers were not considered essential at
the Lennox home. But when his eye
lids CONCEALED with the frost, and his
mittens froze to the logs of tirewOOd
that he carried through the door, and
the pine trees exploded and cracked In
the darkness, he was correct in his
belief that 1t was very, very cold.
But he loved the cold, and the 81
lence and austerity that went with 1t.
The wilderness claimed him as never
before. The rugged breed that were
his ancestors had struggled through
such seasons as this and passed love
Of them down through the years to
him.
When the ice made crust over the
snow, he learned to walk on snow
Shoes At first there were panied
ankles and endless laundering in the
drifts. But between the fall of fresh
snow and the thaws that softened the
crust, he slowly mastered the art.
Snowbird-and Dan never realized the
full significance of her name until he
saw her flying with Incredible grace
over the snow-laughed at him at first
and ran him races that would usually
end in his falling headfirst into a ten
foot snowbank. She taught him how
to ski and more than once she would
stop In the middle of an earnest bit
of pedagogy to find that he wasn't lis
tening at all. He would seem to be
fairly devouring her with his eyes de
lighting in the play of soft pinks and
reds in her cheeks, and drinking, as
man drinks wine, the amazing change
Of light and shadow In her eyes.
She seemed to blossom under his
gaze Not one of those short winter
days went by without the discovery
of some new trait or little vanity TO
astonish or delight lim-sometimes
an unlookedfor tenderness toward the
weak, often n sweet, untnined philos-
ophy of life, or perhaps just lower
ing of her eyelids In which her eyes
would show lustrous through the
Iashes, or some sweeping, exuberant
gesture startlingly graceful.
Lennon wakened one morning with
the realization that this was one of
the hardest winters of his experience.
He began to be very glad of the album
Uant stores of DPOyiSionS that over