t was a clean miss. He did not wait for more, but plunged
across the snow for the sheltering trees of the bank a hundred feet
away. Again and again the rifle cracked, and he was unpleasantly aware
of a trickle of warm moisture down his back.

He climbed the bank, the dogs floundering behind, and dodged in among
the trees and brush. Slipping out of his snow-shoes, he wallowed forward
at full length and peered cautiously out. Nothing was to be seen.
Whoever had shot at him was lying quiet among the trees of the opposite
bank.

"If something doesn't happen pretty soon," he muttered at the end of
half an hour, "I'll have to sneak away and build a fire or freeze my
feet. Yellow Face, what'd you do, lying in the frost with circulation
getting slack and a man trying to plug you?"

He crawled back a few yards, packed down the snow, danced a jig that
sent the blood back into his feet, and managed to endure another half
hour. Then, from down the river, he heard the unmistakable jingle of
dog-bells. Peering out, he saw a sled round the bend. Only one man was
with it, straining at the gee-pole and urging the dogs along. The effect
on Smoke was one of shock, for it was the first human he had seen since
he parted from Shorty three weeks before. His next thought was of the
potential murderer concealed on the opposite bank.

Without exposing himself, Smoke whistled warningly. The man did not
hear, and came on rapidly. Again, and more sharply, Smoke whistled. The
man whoa'd his dogs, stopped, and had turned and faced Smoke when the
rifle cracked. The instant afterwards, Smoke fired into the wood in
the direction of the sound. The man on the river had been struck by
the first shot. The shock of the high velocity bullet staggered him.
He stumbled awkwardly to the sled, half-falling, and pulled a rifle out
from under the lashings. As he strove to raise it to his shoulder, he
crumpled at the waist and sank down slowly to a sitting posture on the
sled. Then, abruptly, as the gun went off aimlessly, he pitched backward
and across a corner of the sled-load, so that Smoke could see only his
legs and stomach.

From below came more jingling bells. The man did not move. Around the
bend swung three sleds, accompanied by half a dozen men. Smoke cried
warningly, but they had seen the condition of the first sled, and they
dashed on to it. No shots came from the other bank, and Smoke, calling
his dogs to follow, emerged into the open. There were e