noon
A rope had been tied fast in front and on this Wumble and Dick pulled , while Sam had hold of the drag itself , to pull and to steer . It was still bitter cold and many times on the way those hauling the drag stopped , to make sure that Tom was comfortable and in no danger of getting his nose or his ears frostbitten . Fortunately the route was largely down hill , so pulling the long drag was not such a hardship as it otherwise might have been . At noon they stopped in a small hollow , sheltered from the wind , and made themselves a hot pot of coffee , and ate a frugal lunch . Tom sat up for a few minutes and the others were glad to see that the journey had done him no harm , either physically or mentally . By the middle of the afternoon it was snowing again and they had all they could do to keep to the trail . The old miner shook his head dubiously .