she carried. Certain young Chukches, too, were noted for their
speed. Could she make it? There was a full mile of level, sandy beach
and quite as level shore ice to be crossed before she could reach the
protection of the up-turned and tumbled ice farther out to sea.

On they came. Now their cries sounded more distinctly; they were
gaining. Now she heard the hoarse gasps of the foremost runner; now
imagining that she felt his hot breath on her cheek she redoubled her
energy. A grass slipper flew into the air. She ran on barefooted over
the stinging ice.

Now an ice pile loomed very near. With a final dash she gained its
shelter. With a whirl she darted from it to the next, then to the right,
straight ahead, again to the right, then to the left. But even then she
did not pause. She must lose herself completely in this labyrinth of
up-ended ice cakes.

Five minutes more of dodging found her far from the shouting mob, that
by this time was as hopelessly lost as dogs in a bramble patch.

The Jap girl smiled and shook her fist at the shore. She was safe.
Compared to this tangled wilderness of ice, the Catacombs of Rome were
an open street.

Throwing a fur garment on a cake of ice, she sat down upon it, at the
same time hastily drawing a parka over her perspiring shoulders. She
then proceeded to examine her collection of clothing. The examination
revealed one fawn skin parka, one under suit of eider duck skin, one
pair of seal skin trousers, two pairs of seal skin boots, with deer skin
socks to match, and one pair of deer skin mittens. Besides these there
was an undressed deer skin, a harpoon and a seal lance.

Not such a bad selection, this, for a moment's choosing. The principal
difficulty was that the whole outfit had formerly belonged to a boy of
fourteen. The Jap girl shrugged her shoulders at this and donned the
clothing without compunctions.

When that task was complete she surveyed herself in an up-ended cake of
blue ice and laughed. In this rig, with her hair closely plaited to her
head, her own mother would have taken her for a young Chukche boy out
for a hunt.

Other problems now claimed her attention. She was alone in the world
without food or shelter. She dared not return to the village. Where
should she go?

Again she shrugged her shoulders. She was warmly clad, but she was tired
and sleepy. Seeking out a cubby hole made by tumbled cakes of ice, she
plastered up the cracks between the cakes with snow u