lt and refused
to be roused into activity. Then to their ears had come the faint
cries of George, and, in answer to their screams, through the gloom
they beheld a long, covered, skin canoe, and the anxious faces of
their friends.

Captain rose from his cramped seat, and, ripping his crackling
garments from the boat where they had frozen, he wriggled out of the
hole in the deck and grasped the weeping Barton.

"Come, come, old boy! It's all right now," he said.

"Oh, Charlie, Charlie!" cried the other. "I might have known you'd
try to save us. You're just in time, though, for the Kid's about all
in." Sullivan apathetically nodded and sat down again.

"Hurry up there; this ain't no G. A. R. Encampment, and you ain't got
no time to spare," said George, who had dragged the canoe out and,
with a paddle, broke the sheets of ice which covered it. "It'll be
too dark to see anything in half an hour."

The night, hastened by the storm, was closing rapidly, and they
realized another need of haste, for, even as they spoke, a crack had
crawled through the ice-floe where they stood, and, widening as it
went, left but a heaving cake supporting them.

George spoke quietly to Captain, while Barton strove to animate the
Kid. "You and Barton must take him ashore and hurry him down to the
village. He's most gone now."

"But you?" questioned the other. "We'll have to come back for you,
as soon as we put him ashore."

"Never mind me," roughly interrupted George. "It's too late to get
back here. When you get ashore it'll be dark. Besides Sullivan's
freezing, and you'll have to rush him through quick. I'll stay here."

"No! No! George!" cried the other, as the meaning of it bore in
upon him. "I got you into this thing, and it's my place to stay
here. You must go--"

But the big man had hurried to Sullivan, and, seizing him in his
great hands, shook the drowsy one like a rat, cursing and beating a
goodly share of warmth back into him. Then he dragged the listless
burden to the canoe and forced him to a seat in the middle opening.

"Come, come," he cried to the others; "you can't spend all night
here. If you want to save the Kid, you've got to hurry. You take
the front seat there, Barton," and, as he did so, George turned to
the protesting Captain: "Shut up, curse you, and get in!"

"I won't do it," rebelled the other. "I can't let you lay down your
life in this way, when I made you come."

George thrust a c