his knife, he cut
the tether of all the other deer. They would follow; it was the way of
reindeer.

Johnny smiled. These extra deer would spell the others and quicken
travel. In case of need, they could be killed for food. Besides, if they
had no deer, the treacherous natives could not follow. They would be
obliged to return to the Russian town they had left and make a new
start, and by that time--Johnny patted his chest where reposed the bill
with the Alaskan stamp on it, and murmured:

"Stay with me li'l' ol' one-spot, and I'll take you home."

He cast one more glance toward the igloos. Not a soul had stirred.

"We're off," he exclaimed, leaping on his sled and slapping his reindeer
on the thigh with the jerkstrap.

"Yes," the Jap girl smiled as she followed his example.

Johnny thought they were "off," but it took only an instant to tell that
they were not. His deer cut a circle and sent him gliding away over the
snows. Fortunately he held to his jerkstrap and at last succeeded in
stopping the animal's mad rush.

The Jap girl smiled again as she took the jerkstrap from his hand and
tied it down short to her own sled. Then she leaped upon her sled again
and, with some cooing words spoke to her reindeer. The deer tossed his
antlers and trotted quietly away, leaving Johnny to spring upon his own
sled and ride in increasing wonderment over the long glistening miles.

When they had traveled for eight hours without a pause and without a
balk, the Jap girl allowed her deer to stop. She loosened the draw strap
and, turning the animal about, tied him by a long line to the sled, that
he might paw moss from beneath the snow in a wide circle.

"How--how'd you know how to drive?" Johnny stammered.

"Never before so," she smiled.

"You mean you never drove a reindeer?"

"Before now, no. Hungry you?" The Jap girl smiled, as if to say, "Enough
about that, let's eat."

It was a royal meal they ate together, those two there beneath the
Arctic moon. This Jap girl was a wonder, Johnny felt that, and he was to
learn it more certainly as the days passed.

Three days later he sat upon a robe of deer skin. The corners of the
robe were drawn up over his shoulders. A shelter of deer skins and
walrus skins, hastily improvised by him during the beginning of a
terrible blizzard which came howling down from the north, was ample to
keep the wind from driving the biting snow into their faces, but it
could hardly keep out the cold.