Father Roland was puzzled and yet he was assured.

He was puzzled because Tavish's snow shoes hung on their wooden peg in one of the cross logs and his rifle was in its rack over the bunk.
"I didn't know he had another pair of snow shoes," he said.

"Still, it is quite a time since I have seen him--a number of weeks.

I came down in the early November snow.

He is not far away or he would have taken his rifle.