Towards evening they were quietly returning after a successful day, and
were still on the plains, when, with an alarming suddenness, the sun and
sky became obscured, and a cold, cutting wind began to blow. Both the
trapper and Indians knew what was coming. The buffalo meat was cast
away, left on the plain to feed the wolves, and on they dashed to reach
the shelter of the canon ere the blizzard came down on them in all its
terrible and blinding force. It got rapidly darker, and the snow was
driven and whirled around them with the force of a hurricane. Both
Douglas and Blunt fell many times, and but for the Indians could never
have reached the shelter. They got to the canon at last, however, and
by good luck into the very cave where Leonard had killed the bear.
Meanwhile all was darkness, and storm, and chaos without. Here they
were, and here they must remain till morning.