I wished I had no mustache, no eyebrows, no eyelashes, no hair--for it was very painful every time I broke this mask of ice. It was hardly broken when it would form again from the particles of new snow adhering to each other. When I broke it, I thought every hair would be torn from my face. If I had not cleared it away the mask of ice would have become so thick that I would have been unable to see. I began to think that there was no fun crossing the mountains after all, if this was the weather we were going to get all the way. As I could not overtake the people ahead, and John was not in sight, gloomy thoughts came over me. Suppose I can find nobody, nor even a house of refuge, I repeated: what then? What will become of me in this terrific windstorm, in the midst of these great towering mountains that surround me on every side? An answer to my question, as dark as my thought, said: "Starvation! Starvation! Death! Death!" Suddenly I thought I heard, through the storm, the same voice from the friends at home shouting to me, "Be of good cheer, Paul; go on; go on! No harm will befall you!" These imaginary words had hardly been uttered when I said to myself, "If the worst comes to the worst, and when I am on the point of starving, I will kill my reindeer, drink its warm blood to sustain my life, abandon my sleigh, and depend on my skees. By that time the storm may be over, and I may meet some of the people who were with me, or other parties who are going to the Arctic Sea." Soon after I had reached this decision, however, I saw through the mist something black. Was it a pack of hungry wolves? It was moving towards me. I seized my gun; but how could I shoot in such weather and be sure to kill? I did not fancy the idea of being attacked by a pack of hungry and starving wolves. At any rate, I would make a desperate effort to kill some; these would be eaten by the pack, and after they were satisfied they would perhaps not follow me but let me alone. Perhaps I might kill a wolf and suck his warm blood; this would avoid the need of killing my reindeer. No, they were not wolves, but people! I was in the midst of my friends; they had stopped and were waiting for me. Now I felt happy. John's dog also felt happy for he wagged his tail and looked at me, and John said, "Paulus, if you had been lost, my dog would have found you." Then they exclaimed: "We would never have gone to the sea without you. We would have wandered all over the mountains with our reindeer or on our skees to find you. But we thought your reindeer would follow our track, for he could scent ours, as the wind was in the right direction; and here we were waiting for you." I could hardly hear their voices, though they surrounded me, for they were drowned in the hissing of the wind. We continued our way and came to another house of refuge, where we took shelter. There we could wait until the storm was over.