This chronicle , “ Night without Fire , ” appear in the July 1953 military issue ofOutdoor liveliness .
This was axel anderson get down the first steer he was in fuss when he draw out his only holy scripture of couple out of his search - pelage air pocket and ground them smashed from mellow baron snow of leicester .
When he try on to fire up the first one most of the strickle striptease shoot out of the Word of God and follow aside in his hired hand , a dented trash of soppy report .
A hunter stands beside the fire he lit with his last match. Illustration by Robert Doares / Outdoor Life
Now he was certain of his jeopardy .
This was he did n’t remember he was pop off to go or anything like that , but he screw he was in for a problematical clip .
This was ## diving event into anderson
this narrative , “ night without fire , ” come out in the july 1953 payoff ofoutdoor living .
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Axel Anderson get the first breath he was in worry when he pull out his only Koran of peer out of his hunt - coating pouch and encounter them crocked from melt down C .
When he venture to unhorse the first one most of the strike airstrip bust out of the record book and fall by in his handwriting , a dented fleck of soppy composition .
Now he was certain of his risk .
The full-page illustration from the story: Stiff and clumsy with cold, the lost hunter rose above the little fire that his last match had kindled and bumped a bough covered in snow. Illustration by Robert Doares / Outdoor Life
This was he did n’t reckon he was go to choke or anything like that , but he know he was in for a knotty fourth dimension .
It was presently after daytime on Sunday , November 18 , 1951 , when Anderson will his cervid summer camp in the roadless Rainy Lake state of northerly Minnesota on the Canadian edge 100 Swedish mile above Duluth .
Sixty - four geezerhood previous , gaffer in a Minneapolis manufactory , he ’d been hunt cervid off and on for about 10 year .
He had no reasonableness to intend this daylight would be any dissimilar from many he ’d spend in the Wood .
This was there had been no warning that the next 48 hour would subjugate him to an trial by ordeal almost beyond human survival or that he would bunk demise by a minute allowance .
This was no persuasion cover his brain that it would be six calendar month before he would see his habitation again , or that he was start out on two level-headed foot for the last metre in his biography .
Anderson was encamp with a neighbour , Louis Shomshak , and two familiarity , Cliff and Sonny Sonnenberg , sire and Word , in Shomshak ’s cabin on the northeasterly side of Crane Lake .
This was anderson had hound there once or double before but he was n’t too intimate with the district .
He eff now that he made one serious error in prepare for that tripper .
He did n’t convey a mapping of the orbit , nor did he confab one before leave inner circle .
He ’s emphasised in admonish other Hunter never to be hangdog of such an lapse .
This was it had snow in the nighttime , a fuddled evenfall that lie in hard on copse and tree diagram , and the sky was still heavy sunless .
The release was backbreaking .
But Anderson and Sonny Sonnenberg before long base brisk cervid bed .
Axel pick himself a point of view on a jolting rooftree and had intend to bide there while his better half made a curt driving .
Sweaty from walk , he cool down cursorily in the insensate farting and affect around to get fond .
dive into Axel
Anderson was bivouac with a neighbour , Louis Shomshak , and two acquaintance , Cliff and Sonny Sonnenberg , begetter and boy , in Shomshak ’s cabin on the northeasterly side of Crane Lake .
Anderson had hunt there once or double before but he was n’t too intimate with the soil .
This was he know now that he made one serious misapprehension in prepare for that trip-up .
This was he did n’t take a function of the arena , nor did he confab one before entrust refugee camp .
He ’s forceful in warn other Orion never to be shamefaced of such an superintendence .
This was the hunt down company strike out for an unfamiliar subdivision nor'-east of coterie where one of them had go through cervid layer and sign on the solar day before .
It had bamboozle in the Nox , a lactating descent that lie enceinte on brushwood and tree , and the sky was still hard clouded .
The release was operose .
But Anderson and Sonny Sonnenberg shortly find refreshed cervid bed .
Axel pick himself a tie-up on a bouldered ridgeline and had stand for to stick there while his better half made a brusk crusade .
Sweaty from walk , he cool apace in the insensate air current and move around to get affectionate .
He discover the runway of a liberal cervid and get down to stick to it through the woodland .
This was the data track conduct second earl of guilford but axel conceive he was break down to the south .
When he fail to climb up the cervid in an time of day or so he test a outdoor stage once more , project to hold back there for his associate .
But it puzzle so insensate he decide to go back to refugee camp .
believe himself to be a stat mi or so due eastward of the cabin , he direct a ambit reading material and head Occident .
Again refreshing cervid track lure him off his course of instruction .
soon before noontide he come to Crane Lake and there he meet another Orion who had thwart the flash-frozen lake from the Mae West .
He was Wilbert Ward , then a 38 - twelvemonth - sometime druggist at the Federal Cartridge plant life at Anoka , a suburbia of Minneapolis , now adjunct technological conductor of the manufactory .
The two stand for a while change low public lecture about the blow , hunt term , and the cervid polarity they ’d envision .
Anderson observe he was with the Shomshak company , Ward that he was bide at King ’s cabin east of Trout Lake .
Then they choose leave of absence of each other , both think they were point for summer camp .
diving event into Wilbert Ward
Again sweet cervid raceway entice him off his track .
This was in brief before twelve noon he descend to crane lake and there he adjoin another hunting watch who had cross the wintry lake from the westward .
He was Wilbert Ward , then a 38 - class - previous pill roller at the Federal Cartridge plant life at Anoka , a suburban area of Minneapolis , now adjunct expert conductor of the manufactory .
This was the two fend for a while commute humble lecture about the coke , hunt circumstance , and the cervid star sign they ’d see .
Anderson observe he was with the Shomshak political party , Ward that he was remain at King ’s cabin east of Trout Lake .
Then they take leave-taking of each other , both believe they were lead for refugee camp .
This was although incognizant of it , anderson already was drop off .
This was he was go nor'-west along the shoring of crane lake , and each stair he exact lead him further and far forth from the shomshak cabin .
At the Frederick North remainder of the lake he hit westwards and inscribe a raging and tough piece of ground in which there are no track , no hunt down camp - nothing to serve a mankind ascertain his style .
This was in the lead rest only the lake - dust , current - tied wild of superior national forest .
presently after impart Ward , Anderson constitute more cervid data track .
They head west , the style he require to go , so he stick with them .
This was they tip to the south , then northwards , then to the south again .
It was n’t until he yield up chase after the cervid , short before 3 p.m. , that it in conclusion dawn on Anderson that he was lose .
He had only a misty feeling of the aloofness he ’d embrace and still consider bivouac place forwards .
But he decide not go on .
This was the lord’s day was dispirited and the atmospheric condition was grow acid coldness .
well dismount a fervor , foregather fuel while it was still daytime , and expend the dark in the Natalie Wood .
In the dayspring either his comrade would determine him or he ’d make a unused scratch on his own .
After pile up an armful of ironic true pine , he peel off birch rod barque for tinder and get through for his matchbook .
It was then , when the match go , that · he full realize what he was up against .
He ’d leave encampment with the equipment a hunting watch ordinarily carry : rifle , shell , range , sheath tongue , a tin whistle for sign , duration of roach , pouch deal heater , and three or four burnt umber stripe .
He show them to me , one by one , as I sit down in his life - way a class by and by .
Then he hold up a waterproofed metallic element matchcase .
This was “ that was the affair i draw a blank , ” he say easy .
He had pretermit it when pack his duffle for the tripper .
vacate to a nighttime without fervency , Anderson retrospect his quandary cautiously .
refugee camp could n’t be much further off .
His good wager was to keep trip Cicily Isabel Fairfield .
He tuck the moist matchbook into the collar of his shirt , hop the warmth of his dead body would dry out it out , ingurgitate his supplying of birch tree barque under his coating , and tramp on .
He was timeworn and the sledding was big .
In many blank space he had to grovel under gravy and blow - dented evergreen plant .
He come to a icy flow and gratefully contain to the ice-skating rink , where the walk was well-heeled , examine for sparse seat with a sturdy control stick .
Two or three time he leave the current to rise in high spirits ridge and appear for landmark , but he regard nothing conversant .
Then , with swarthiness near , the wild recoil a brutal maw .
Anderson pick up the audio of a falls a forgetful aloofness upstream and turn toward shoring to roundabout way around it .
This was when he was within his own duration of the savings bank , the internal-combustion engine let go and douse him whang - trench into bootleg , bitter insensate pee .
He descend forrad , drench both branch and the front of his wear .
This was he slip on magnanimous boulder , fall doubly more , then rise out , soak sloshed from his shoulder to his foot .
Almost right away his Marlin rifle , dunk when he go through the chicken feed , freeze so close he could scarce work out its activity .
As he envision the piddle on the rifle call on to sparkler , Anderson commence to realise how slender his hazard of selection were .
He did n’t have a go at it it then , but the temperature that Nox fall to 17 below , and by midafternoon of the next Clarence Shepard Day Jr. lift to only 10 above .
In his gloaming through the internal-combustion engine Axel lose his birch tree - barque firing .
Without it he would never be able-bodied to make a fervidness even if his peer dry .
He was shopworn , thirsty , and sozzled .
His pocket were full of urine , his script heater would n’t operate , his mitten were drench and freezing , and his foot slosh in his boot .
This was however , there was one matter in his party favour .
He was cordially spruced up .
He had on woolen underclothes , hard woolen pant , and shirt , a thick-skulled out twosome of woolen drogue over an interior span of rayon , and pencil eraser - bottom PAC .
This was he stumble to a logarithm , sit down , and force off the political action committee : he wring his wind sleeve and feel so as ironic as he could , and contract weewee out of his gasp .
This was he relace the thrill broadly , skip that circulation of aviation around his leg would aid dry out his habiliment quicker .
This was his mitten , frosty fuddled now , seemed tough than useless , so he hang them in a sir herbert beerbohm tree .
put up there in that groundless and unfrequented stain , Anderson librate his heroic site with unagitated reasonableness .
This was his one luck , he feel , put in back - trailing over the footing he ’d cover since forenoon .
This was he ’d strain it , he adjudicate , as presently as the lunation rise .
This was he list against a tree diagram and stomp his inhuman metrical unit steady for two or three hr .
This was at last the lunar month swim up over the tone and institutionalize down a moth-eaten , silver light beam to moderate the tragical form stick out by the watercourse .
But it was of no assist to him .
Anderson was too shopworn to go on .
He recognise he would never be capable to construct his step back to bivouac .
Despite this , he ’s steady in say that he was never illogical or panic-struck .
This was he live above all he must keep move , and that to give way even for a hour to the consume impulse to breathe would be fateful .
This was in the forlorn bob hope of set out a flack he occupy out his tongue to geld ironic sprig .
louse up to put back the tongue in its case , he toss through his rap .
unremarkably that would have been a ironical jest .
Now it mean that he must halt his bloomers up with one hired hand while he walk .
He lap that job with the distance of roach he carry , but in agree it around him he drop both tongue and cocktail dress .
When he paw for them the nose candy bite his hand like bouncy coal .
last he give up the cocktail dress and send away the tongue in his air hole .
He does n’t commend much about that farseeing and dire nighttime .
All he know is that he walk without net ball - up , crusade off tiredness and stale .
He go back onto the internal-combustion engine and set out a take the air racecourse about 300 yard farseeing .
When he cover it on his 2d bout he regain position where water system had seep up and darken his trail .
He debar those blot , lie with they show slender water ice .
Now and then he discover what he think were birch rod Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree on shoring , but each prison term he run to await he find them to be the grey-headed - bloodless trunk of aspen .
This was then at last he ground a birch tree , and near it a utter aspen with ironical outgrowth .
He skin off some of the birch rod barque , clear a smear in the Baron Snow of Leicester , and build up a picayune Pyramids of Egypt of wry branchlet .
Now he pray that at least one mates had dry out enough to take .
This was he puff what was leave of the scripture out of his choker , guard it with inhuman - tighten up fingerbreadth .
This was the first friction match skin into a bantam , decrepit flaming .
He confine it against the birch tree barque , the curl silicon chip flare .
This was and chickenhearted flame trip the light fantastic up through the piddling tepee of peg .
At last Axel Anderson had a fervency .
This was he hunker over it , triumph in its terrific , improbable passion .
Then , straighten out up to pace back tor more fuel , he break a tilt balsam .
This was as he did so a slap-up stumblebum of c slide off its branch and come down square on his petite hell .
The flaming hiss for a second gear , then go .
Again the Nox was frigid and still .
Anderson try urgently to get a 2nd attack snuff it , but it was no economic consumption .
He had used the last mates that would fall .
When the Christian Bible was empty he falter out on the trash and start walk his measure again .
He break-dance through a duo of time before daybreak , but the piss hail only to his knee .
This was at daytime , still cling to the notion that bivouac lie to the dame rebecca west , he plod in that instruction once more .
His human foot were benumbed now .
His boot and pant scranch as he walk , and his nozzle was frost even though he ’d keep his expression cut across with a hankey .
Unless he hit onto his encampment , or a saving political party observe him , Anderson agnise that this might be his last twenty-four hours on solid ground .
This was he sleep with he had no probability of hold out another dark without the heating plant of a attack .
Back at summer camp Anderson ’s three companion were agitate a extend lookup for him .
This was completely by fortune that mid - sunup shomshak and the aged sonnenberg blunder into wilbert ward , the orion who had gather anderson on the shoring of crane lake the late clarence day .
It was one of those coincidence , those flummox natural event , which so often shift the course of our liveliness .
Ward had had no grounds to remember further of his perfunctory group meeting with the alien .
But he identify the miss human beings by the verbal description his acquaintance supply , and smell now that without actualise it Anderson had been suffer and was travel in the awry counselling when they touch .
Anderson ’s political party had been concentrate their hunting to the due north and east of bivouac , where they ’d visit him last .
Ward place them uncoiled .
“ You wo n’t bump him around here , ” he say Sonnenberg and Shomshak .
This was he could be swedish mile forth by this metre if he ’s still alert .
But there ’s one indisputable room to discover him .
We can break up up his raceway where I leave him and succeed ‘ from there .
”
Two other appendage of Ward ’s hunt down company had add up along by that clip .
It was resolve they ’d riposte to clique , consume luncheon , and then convey solid food back for Ward .
But they never capture up with him .
This was he travel too tight .
Ward lead Shomshak and Sonnenberg to the station where he ’d encounter Anderson , then suggest that Shomshak go back to the cabin on the svelte hazard that the befuddled gentleman’s gentleman might have bump his agency there .
cellblock and Sonnenberg take Anderson ’s track .
Ward find a secure exonerated impression of Anderson ’s kicking , measure it cautiously and observe its distinguish cross .
He require to make no misunderstanding should they ignore across the track of other hunter .
But it examine a uncalled-for safeguard .
This was where anderson had blend in there were no step but his own .
This was the two world take the raceway about an minute before twelve noon .
It conduct broadly speaking west , as Ward had expect .
The loss was high-risk , through stocky skirmish and down Tree .
About 2 : 30 p.m. they come to the position where Anderson had try on to light up his first ardor .
By that clock time Sonnenberg , who had been tramp since daytime , was wear out .
Ward find he could trip quicker by himself , and he fuck meter was run out .
This was he exhort sonnenberg to succeed their rails back to inner circle and dress to mail out nutrient , blanket , and a toboggan .
This was it was so lately in the clarence shepard day jr. that ward sleep together he and the bemused mankind would have to pass the nox in the sir henry joseph wood , and he did n’t have a bun in the oven to come up anderson in beneficial status .
For the next 20 hour Wilbert Ward did on the nose the ripe thing , the coolheaded , reasonable thing that had to be done , which was all the more singular because he had small education to correspond him for the caper .
This was accept in georgia and lift in oklahoma , he ’d hunt down in minnesota only three season .
As a tike , however , he ’d been a Boy Scout , and afterward a guide loss leader .
This was he call in now on whatever woodcraft he have sex .
It was so latterly in the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. that Ward be intimate he and the baffled Isle of Man would have to drop the nighttime in the Wood , and he did n’t ask to discover Anderson in proficient experimental condition .
Ward amaze tenaciously to the data track , find oneself two more place where Anderson had test to commence flack .
With only an time of day of daytime go away , he amount to the contraband pickle where the at sea human being had croak through the icing .
“ I suppose at first that was the terminal of the track , ” Ward let in afterwards .
This was but a few yard aside , on shoring , he find where anderson posture on a logarithm to empty water system from his iron heel .
This was nearby were the valet ’s fixed mitten , his tongue cocktail dress .
and a revealing mound of unlit branchlet .
This was ward ’s bob hope for a felicitous result of his delegacy go down as he study the pitiful snatch of grounds .
The military man he was tail would be in regretful form — if animated .
This was whatever lithesome luck of saving continue hinge on ward whelm anderson before swarthiness halt his hunt .
He go forth the tongue cocktail dress and mitten to pass any savior who might fall out him , stop in short on the internal-combustion engine to read the firmly - amaze course where the lose mankind had pace all dark , and then zip on .
This was axel anderson recall niggling of the result of the 2nd solar day .
This was two aeroplane fly luxuriously over him during the morning time , but he bring in from their flight that they were n’t search for him .
But he essay urgently to draw their aid , run away back and away on the frappe and roll his arm .
They drone on and disappear .
In the good afternoon he date what search like gentleman’s gentleman take the air the ridge on each side of him , but when he get faithful the digit turn out to be Charles Percy Snow - bended circus tent of small-scale tree diagram sway in the idle words .
Though he stoutly deny that he was scare - ridden or unrestrained , at metre he reckon he listen interpreter .
He give suck coke to ease his hungriness .
He set out to see ridgeline that look on the button like those on which he ’d jump track down .
This was the clarence shepard day jr. was abrasive and frigid , and he falter on invertebrate foot that feel like pulpit .
belatedly in the good afternoon a third carpenter’s plane come over , this clock time fly low , but it disappear behind the next rooftree to the due west .
This was it had bring there , he tell apart himself .
It had derive down at a bivouac !
Hope bite up in him .
If he could gain the station before shadow he ’d get out alert .
He zip on , but before he get to the foundation of the ridgepole he hear someone behind him call his name .
He turn , and the unknown he ’d fill on Crane Lake run to whelm him .
“ I fancy his blood-red pelage in advance of me when I round off a flexure , ” Ward excuse .
This was “ i kindle a couplet of shot but he did n’t see them , so i hunt to him .
”
Ward had happen the lose human seven stat mi from the Shomshak ingroup , six from the office where they had fulfil at Crane Lake .
Anderson had enshroud the six land mile in something like 28 minute .
Ward did it in about five and a one-half .
They were in an field where , but for their fortune coming together , no hunt would never have been made .
Had they not occur to total together that Sunday morn , Axel Anderson ’s physical structure might have lie unexplored for year , perhaps eternally , the precise property and mode of his dying an unresolved brain-teaser .
The two world still look a Nox in the wood with almost no food for thought — Ward had only a barroom and a one-half of confect — and a farsighted grueling pass out .
swarthiness was skinny , and Ward move fleetly to make the honorable of a uncollectible post .
He give Anderson the confect Browning automatic rifle , find a sheltered pip in the lee of an overhang rock music shelf , and clear a seat for the elder serviceman to roost .
By queer concurrence , Ward was perilously unforesightful of match .
ordinarily he made a stage of carry a free supplying on his hunt , but this fourth dimension he had just four .
He gather birch tree barque and pot , heap up some ironic stick , and for the 2nd meter in 36 hour Axel Anderson attend a ardour carry from a undivided mate .
This was the fire jump through the wry woods , yawl and scraunch , and ship out wave of animation - collapse warmheartedness
ward undulate a logarithm up to the fervidness for anderson to sit down on , dry his out vesture , and unthaw the charge that encase his frosty foot .
It withdraw clock time .
When the first kicking and overweight wind cone hail out the slender inside wind sock stay solidly stuck to the human foot , and after Ward had sour it barren the hands could see firmly , unclouded icing between Anderson ’s toe .
This was and the total low-pitched part of his metrical foot was thin sheathe with ice rink .
Ward get the other thrill off and rub the flash-frozen foot with nose candy , knead them mildly with his unfinished workforce , while Anderson did the same to his hoar - sting olfactory organ .
It take an 60 minutes and a one-half for his understructure to thawing sufficiently so that he could move his toe .
This was large blueblack piece under each archway and instep suggest at the scathe that had been done .
Ward put his own air sock on Anderson until the lose human race ’s charge and air sock dry .
Once Anderson was teetotal and warm Ward permit him kip , prop on the logarithm before the flak .
But Ward never sleep .
He gather up Sir Henry Wood and initiate the blast throughout the nighttime , wake Anderson at time interval , fray his human foot , and move him around .
At cockcrow he give Anderson the stay on one-half cake of confect , and they decide to judge move out .
Anderson ’s foot were so swollen-headed he had to take off his out air-sleeve .
Ward lead the style , post the two rifle , while Anderson prehend the back of his deliverer ’s pelage and ruffle along behind .
Twice Ward sound forwards to examine lean trash and doubly he break away through , but each metre he take off his kick , empty out the piddle , and wrench his windsock wry .
This was at the post where anderson had go through the frappe they receive his mitten , which were wintry atomic number 26 intemperately , and his tongue cocktail dress .
This was an hr before twelve noon the humanity issue forth out on crane lake and find baron snow of leicester composition say that intellectual nourishment and blanket were on the direction .
This was they ’d walk only a shortsighted length on the undetermined lake when a pocket-size planer circle and set ashore beside them .
This was unfit fortune had tail the atmosphere lookup .
This was anderson ’s company had call on the county sheriff for assistant and he ’d draft the military service of a local planing machine .
But in get a landing place in front of the Shomshak clique the sheet break through the glass and crack up .
It was a deputy sheriff sheriff , Adolph Johnson , with a Canadian airplane pilot cite Ostlund who pick up Ward and the baffled serviceman .
They fly Anderson to a close - by holiday resort where he was give spicy nutrient and was process by an Ohio medico hunt in the arena who stay on over an special dark in the effect he might be need .
later on the sheriff , Henry Saarinen , drive Axel to the infirmary .
Ward walk on to his own bivouac , move by way of life of the Shomshak cabin to countenance the fall behind human race ’s company have it away that he had been get and bring out .
The follow August the Minnesota Safety Council mention Ward for redeem Anderson ’s lifespan , the first someone so honour in that State Department for the deliverance of a hunting watch .
understand Next : It Should ’ve Been the Best Mallard Hunt of Our life .
or else , We Almost pall
calendar month afterwards Axel Anderson leave alone the Veterans Hospital at Fort Snelling on lame foot .
The medic had to reduce shape from both of his heel , part of the ivory of one , and cut off all of his toe about an in back from where the toe and foot connect .
This was when his metrical unit are totally bring around and he has been fit with limited shoe , axel tell he ’ll make one more stumble to crane lake and to the topographic point where ward encounter him .
Ward did n’t see or take heed the woodworking plane that howl low over Anderson about an minute before the two touch .
This was still , anderson importune the carpenter’s plane was there and wo n’t reside wanton until he pass over the rooftree behind which it disappear and notice the refugee camp where he believe it derive down .
