Then he lightly plugged the hole in the partition with snow, and reached out in the darkness until his hand found Peter.
"They think they've got us, boy," he whispered, "They think they've got us!" Very quietly they lay for an hour.

McKay did not sleep, and Peter was wide awake.

At the end of that hour Jolly Roger crept on his hands and knees to the doorway and listened.

One after another he picked out the steady breathing of the sleepers.

Then he began feeling his way around the wall of his room until he came to a place where the snow was very soft.
"An air-drift," he whispered to Peter, close at his shoulder.