nny drew himself slowly from beneath the furs. Lifting the deer skin
curtain cautiously, he looked out. Then he chuckled a cold, dry chuckle.
His knuckles were bloody, for the only weapon he had used was that truly
American weapon, a clenched fist. Johnny, as I have suggested before,
was somewhat handy with his "dukes." His left was a bit out of repair
just now, but his right was quite all right, as the crumpled heap of a
man testified.

Johnny bent over the man and twisted his head about. No, his neck was
not broken. Johnny was thankful for that. He hated to see dead people
even when they richly deserved to die.

Then he turned to the knife. He started again, as he extricated the
hilt from the snow. But there was no time for examining it. His ear
caught a stifled cry, a woman's cry. It came, without a doubt, from the
igloo of his fellow traveler, the woman. Hastily thrusting his knife in
his belt, he threw back the tentflap and crossed the intervening
snowpatch in three strides.

He threw back the canvas just in time to seize a second native by the
hood of his deer skin parka. He whirled the man completely about, tossed
him high in the air, then struck him as he was coming down; struck him
in the same place he had hit the other, only harder, very much harder.
He did not examine him later for a broken neck, either.

Turning, Johnny saw the woman staring at him. Evidently she had slept in
her furs. As she stood there now, she seemed quite equal to the task of
caring for herself. There was a muscular sturdiness about her which
Johnny had failed to notice before. In her hand gleamed a wicked looking
dagger with a twisted blade.

But that she had been caught unawares, there could be no question, and
from the kindly flash in her eyes Johnny read the fact that she was
grateful for her deliverance.

He threw one glance at the other igloos. Standing there casting dark,
purple shadows, they were strangely silent. Apparently these two
murderers had been appointed to accomplish the task alone. The others
were asleep. For this Johnny was thankful.

Turning to the woman he said sharply:

"Gotta git outa here. You, me, savvy?"

"Savvy," she replied placidly.

Seizing her fur bag of small belongings, Johnny hastened before her to
where the sled deer were tethered. Two sleds were still loaded, one with
an unused igloo and deerskins, the other with food. To each of these
Johnny hastily harnessed a reindeer. Then whipping out