this stranger? Was he
related to the girl in some way? Was he her friend or her foe? Was he
really in this village at this time? If so, why did she not seek him
out? If a friend, why did she not join him; and, if an enemy, why not
have him killed? Surely, here they were quite beyond the law.

Oh, yes, Johnny might get a dog team and go on up the coast alone, but
Johnny liked his two traveling companions too well for that, and
besides, Johnny dearly loved mysteries, and here was a whole nest of
them. No, Johnny would wait.

The seal oil lamps imparted a drowsy warmth to the igloo. The deer skins
were soft and comfortable. Johnny grew sleepy. Throwing the ragged old
book in the corner, he stretched out full length on the skins, which lay
in the irregular circle of light, and was soon fast asleep.

Just how long he slept he could not tell. When he awoke it was with a
feeling of great peril tugging at his heart. His first conscious thought
was that the aperture above him had, in some way, been darkened.
Instantly his eyes sought that opening. What he saw there caused his
heart to pause and his eyes to bulge.

Directly above him, seemingly poised for a drop, was a vicious looking
hook. With a keen point and a barb fully three inches across, with a
shaft of half-inch steel which was driven into a pole three inches in
diameter and of indefinite length, it could drive right through Johnny's
stomach, and pin him to the planks beneath. And, as his startled eyes
stared fixedly at it, the thing shot downward.

CHAPTER V

"FRIEND? ENEMY?"

Johnny Thompson, before he joined the army, had been considered one of
the speediest men of the boxing ring. His brain worked like lightning,
and every muscle in his body responded instantly to its call. Johnny had
not lost any of his speed. It was well that he had not, for, like a
spinning car-wheel, he rolled over twice before the hook buried itself
to the end of its barb in the pungent plank on which he had reclined an
instant before.

Nor did Johnny stop rolling then. He continued until he bumped against
the skin wall of his abode. This was fortunate also, for he had not half
regained his senses when two almost instantaneous explosions shook the
igloo, tore the plank floor into shreds, shooting splinters about, and
even through the double skin wall, and filling Johnny's eyes with powder
smoke and dust.

Johnny sat up with one hand on his automatic. He was fully awake.

"I