He's the bravest of the lot, you know, and so he's just the fellow for the job." Dutcher choked over the food he was swallowing, and shifted his feet uneasily.
Soon after breakfast was over Dick, Dave and Tom stepped outside with the shovels.

Here and there the path had been left fairly clear, though at other points they had to shovel industriously through the new drifts.
At last, however, they reached the same window through which they had looked in the day before.
"No sign of any one inside," muttered Dick.

"Nor have we seen any signs of fire from the chimney.

I can see the stove, now, but there doesn't seem to be any sign of fire in it." "Let's dig around to the door," proposed Dave, "and go inside." Accordingly the three bent to the new work.

A few minutes later Dick gave a tug at the latch-string and the door swung open.
"It doesn't seem as cold in here as you'd expect to find it," murmured Reade.
"That's because we've just come from where it's a good deal colder," Tom answered.
Dick stepped over to the cook stove, raising a lid.
"Look, fellows; here are a few live coals left here yet." Dave and Tom joined him, staring at the embers in some astonishment.
"Yet there's no one here, and no tracks in the snow outside," observed Tom.