beside his sister and drew forth his copy of the
precious secret which the skeletons had guarded. With a little cry
of excitement the girl took the map in her hands, and step by step,
adventure by adventure, was gone over the thrilling story of the Wolf
Hunters, until the late hours of night had changed into the first of
morning. Twice did Minnetaki insist on having repeated to her the
story of Rod's wild adventure in the mysterious chasm, and when he
came to the terrors of that black night and its strange sounds Rod
felt a timid little hand come close to him, and as Wabigoon continued
the narration, and told of the map in the skeleton hand, and of the
tale of murder and tragedy it revealed, Minnetaki's breath came in
quick, tense eagerness.

"And you are going back in the spring?" she asked.

"In the spring," replied Rod.

Again Wabigoon urged Rod, as he had done at the Post, to send down to
civilization for his mother instead of going for her himself. Time
would be saved, he argued. They could set out on their search for the
gold within a few weeks. But Rod was firm.

"It would not be fair to mother," he declared. "I must go home first,
even if I have to arrange for a special sledge at Kenegami House to
take me down to civilization."

But even while he was stoutly declaring what it was his intention to
do, fate was stealthily at work weaving another of her webs of destiny
for Roderick Drew, and his friends' anxious eyes saw the first signs
of it when they bade him good night. For fever had laid its hand on
the white youth, the fever that foreshadows death unless a surgeon
is near, the fever of a wound going bad. Even Mukoki, graduated by
Nature, taught by half a century's battle with life in this great
desolation of the North, knew that his own powers were now of no
avail.

So Roderick was bundled in blankets, and the race for life to Kenegami
House was begun. It was a race of which Rod could only guess the
import, for he did not know that Death was running a fierce pursuit
behind. Many days and nights of delirium followed. One morning he
seemed to awaken from a terrible dream, in which he was constantly
burning and roasting, and when he opened his eyes he knew for the
first time that it was Minnetaki who sat close beside him, and that it
was her hand that was gently stroking his forehead. From that day on
he gained strength rapidly, but it was a month before he could sit up,
and another two weeks before he c