"But that's not the worst. It seems that Weimer isn't as stout in his head as he was before he was stricken with snow-blindness, and, although he is as stout as ever in his muscles, he doesn't take kindly to work any more. Hasn't even taken the winter's supplies of food and dynamite over to Meadow Creek. He's just smoking his pipe in peace because of the man father is sending to help him out! But I can tell you that the peace is all on his side. "The mountains here are the original packages, all right. They're miles high, and look as if they'd topple over on a fellow with but half an excuse. And then the air--or the lack of it, rather! I've not been able to walk any distance without a cane, so uncertain does this rare air make me in my motions. But Steele says I'll get over that in a day or two. So, day after to-morrow he is going with me to Meadow Creek with the Gale's Ridge Company's horses--we 'pack' over the supplies for the winter, and the emergency chest just as it is; but, Aunt Anne, only a small portion of the contents of my big trunk can go. Over on the Creek Steele can explain to me about the amount of work to be done, for fear Weimer doesn't tell it straight----" Suddenly Ross stopped. He leaned back and bit his pencil, his eyes narrowing frowningly as he glanced over the letter. Then with a gesture of disdain he caught up the sheets, and tore them into fragments. Steele paused in the act of placing the dishes in the rough cupboard which was nailed to the logs behind the stove. "Well, I'd think twice before I tore up a letter--too hard work to write 'em." "I have thought twice," returned Ross emphatically. "That's why I tore it up. No use piling up all my difficulties on them first thing. Aunt Anne worries enough over my being here, as it is." "So there's an 'Aunt Anne,' is there?" mused Steele to himself over the dishes. He glanced at the bits of paper in a heap on the table. "Good work she and that doctor uncle have done." He surveyed Ross's clean-cut, clear-eyed face as it bent above a second and brighter letter, one that ignored or made light of the difficulties oppressing the boy. In order to divert further the attention of the recipients, Ross also wrote divers pieces of information that he had learned from Steele.