Light tongues of flame rose higher and higher, until the trunk was alight ten or twelve feet up.
"The wolves are all gone," Charlie said, looking down.
"I don't suppose they have gone very far, sir.

But when the tree once gets fairly alight, you may be sure they won't venture anywhere near it." They had already been forced to move some little distance away from the trunk, by the heat, and as the flames rose higher and higher, embracing in the course of half an hour the whole of the trunk and upper branches, they felt that it was perfectly safe to drop off into the snow beneath them.
Blazing brands soon began to fall.

They stood a short distance away, so as to be beyond the risk of accident, but, at Charlie's suggestion, they ran in from time to time, gathered up the brands and laid them at the foot of the trunk, and in a short time a second fire was kindled here.
The tree was now a pyramid of fire, lighting up the snow for a long distance round.

Outside this circle the wolves could be heard whining and whimpering, occasionally uttering a long-drawn howl.
"They know that they are baulked of their prey," Stanislas said.
"We shall have some of the big branches falling soon, and shall be able to keep up a roaring fire, that will last until daylight.

I should think by that time the wolves will be tired of it, and will make off; but if not, the captain will be sure to send men out to search for us.