uth.

Even the dogs realized the change in their masters. Nick's lash fell
heavily and frequently, and the hardy brutes, who loved the toil of the
trace, and the incessant song of the trailing sled, fell to wondering at
the change, and the pace they were called upon to make. It was not their
nature to complain; their pride was the stubborn, unbending pride of
savage power, and their reply to the wealing thong was always the reply
their driver sought. Faster and faster they journeyed as the uncooling
ardour of their master's spirits rose.

The snow lay thick and heavy, and every inch of the wild, unmeasured
trail had to be broken. The Northland giants thronged about them,
glistening in their impenetrable armour and crested by the silvery
burnish of their glacial headpieces. They frowned vastly, yet with a
sublime contempt, at the puny intrusion of their solitude. But the fiery
spirit impelling the brothers was a power which defied the overwhelming
grandeur of the mountain world, and rendered insignificant the trials
they encountered. The cry was "On!" and the dogs laboured as only these
burden-bearers of the North can labour.

The dark day ripened; and, as the dull sun crept out from behind the
greyness, and revealed the frost in the air, the temperature dropped
lower and lower. And the animal world peeped furtively out upon the
strange sight of creatures like themselves toiling at the command of
beings whose voices had not even the power to smite the mountainsides
with boastful defiance as theirs were wont to do.

Then the daylight waned. The sky returned to its greyness as the night
shades rose, and a bitter breeze shuddered through the woods and along
the valleys. The sounds of the forest rose in mournful cadence, and, as
the profundity of the mountain night settled heavily upon the world, the
timber-wolf, the outlaw of the region, moved abroad, lifting his voice
in a cry half-mournful, half-exultant.

Camp was pitched well clear of the forest and a large fire kindled; and
the savage night-prowlers drew forth from the woodland shadows. The men
proceeded silently with their various tasks. Ralph prepared their own
food, and soon a savoury odour tickled the nostrils of those beyond the
circle of the firelight. Nick thawed out the dogs' evening meal and
distributed it impartially, standing over the hungry beasts with a club
to see that each got the full benefit of his portion. It was a strange
sight for the furtive e