is way without a second's
hesitation, round little piles of frozen earth and over heaps of stone and
gravel. Not a rock was loosed, not a sound made by his soft, padded
footsteps, as he moved swiftly along the passage.

Now he was a quarter way to the entrance, now half. No definite plan of
action had entered his mind. He knew only that, in some way, he must make
good his escape.

Suddenly a light flared. A match had been struck. A bearded face flickered
behind it in the shadows, then another and another. There followed a
steadier gleam of light.

"A candle!" the boy whispered in despair.

He shrank back into the deeper shadows. The procession of grizzled giants
moved forward with caution. Soon they were twenty feet from him and then
only ten. It seemed inevitable that he should be seen.

The moment for action had arrived. In his right hand was a heavy lump of
frozen pay dirt. With a sure twist of the wrist he sent this crashing into
the candle. Amid the curses of the men, the candle snuffed out. The next
instant, there came a thundering crash. Pant had overturned a whole tier
of pay dirt cubes.

In the midst of the confusion that followed, he made his escape. Scorning
his snow-den, in which he was to have hidden, he scrambled out of the main
entrance and, with the sled shooting on before him down the steep incline,
headed straight toward the ice-blocked ocean.

It was but a matter of moments until he found himself effectually lost in
the labyrinth of ice piles and up-ended cakes on that endless expanse of
ice that lined the shore.

Breathing more easily, he sat down upon his sled, and, after digging into
his scant food supply, opened a can of frozen beans. These he shared with
his dog. Having eaten, he took up his tireless march to Vladivostok.

These things had been happening to him while his former companion, Johnny
Thompson, was threading his way through the ice floes to Vladivostok.
While Johnny was completing his journey and making his trading trip to the
wandering city of Mongols, Pant was hurrying southward. This passage was
uneventful. It so happened that, the very day on which Johnny Thompson was
about to re-enter this Russian city of many dangers and mysteries after
his visit to the Mongols, Pant, coming from an opposite direction, was
also entering.

It will not, I am sure, seem strange that Johnny at this very time found
himself longing for this companion and his protection. And, of course,
sinc