back from this Arctic waste after he had traveled nearly fifteen
hundred miles. It was incredible that there could exist such a police
force on earth.

"Got me, did you?" he growled. He added the boast that he could not
keep back. "Well, you'd never 'a' got me if I hadn't gone blind--never
in this world. There ain't any two of yore damned spies could land
Bully West when he's at himself."

"Had breakfast?"

He broke into a string of curses. "No, our grub's runnin' low. That
wood Cree slipped away with all we had. Wish I'd killed him last week
when I skinned him with the dog-whip."

"How long have you been blind?"

"It's been comin' on two-three days. This damned burnin' glare from
the snow. Yesterday they give out completely. I tied myself by a line
to the Injun. Knew I couldn't trust him. After all I done for him
too."

"Did you know he was traveling south with you--had been since
yesterday afternoon?"

"No, was he?" Again West fell into his natural speech of invective.
"When I meet up with him, I'll sure enough fill him full o' slugs," he
concluded savagely.

"You're not likely to meet him again. We've come to take you back to
prison."

Morse brought the train up and the hungry man was fed. They treated
his eyes with the simple remedies the North knows and bound them with
a handkerchief to keep out the fierce light reflected from the snow.

Afterward, they attached him by a line to the driver. He stumbled
along behind. Sometimes he caught his foot or slipped and plunged down
into the snow. Nobody had ever called him a patient man. Whenever any
mishap occurred, he polluted the air with his vile speech.

They made slow progress, for the pace had to be regulated to suit the
prisoner.

Day succeeded day, each with its routine much the same as the one
before. They made breakfast, broke camp, packed, and mushed. The swish
of the runners sounded from morning till night fell. Food began to run
scarce. Once they left the blind man at the camp while they
hunted wood buffalo. It was a long, hard business. They came back
empty-handed after a two-day chase, but less than a mile from camp
they sighted a half-grown polar bear and dropped it before the animal
had a chance to move.

One happy hour they got through the Land of Little Sticks and struck
the forests again.

They had a blazing fire again for the first time in six weeks. Brush
and sticks and logs went into it till it roared furiously.

Morse turned fr