CHAPTER 4THE EEP SNOWS
For a bit the match flared brightly, then burned itself down to John’s fingers and went out. But by its light he was able to see where he had fallen. A log, driven down this creek in the old lumbering days, had cast up on the bank here. More logs had snagged on the first, piling themselves haphazardly to form a wall almost six feet high. The beavers had built their dam close to the log pile, and the sticks they had left protruding over the dam had roofed the intervening space. Snow had piled up on the sticks to make a treacherous trap for anything heavy enough to break them. A few snowflakes sifted through, but for the most part the bottom of the cave was lined with leaves.
The gaping hole he had made in falling through showed dimly above him. With his hand John sc
