orry," he said, "but
I couldn't help it. Rydal--"

"I am sure, unless you give the instructions quickly, that I shall
shoot," she interrupted him. Her voice was so quiet that Peter was
amazed. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Keith. But--"

A flash of fire blinded him, and with the flash Blake staggered back
with a cry of pain and stood swaying unsteadily in the starlight,
clutching with one hand at an arm which hung limp and useless at his
side.

"That time, I broke your arm," said Dolores, with scarcely more
excitement than if she had made a bull's-eye on the Piping Rock range.
"If I fire again, I am quite positive that I shall kill you!"

The Eskimos had not moved. They were like three lifeless, staring
gargoyles. For another second or two Blake stood clutching at his arm.
Then he said,

"Uppy, put the dog meat and the kindlings on the big sledge--and drive
like hell for Fort Confidence!" And then, before she could stop him, he
followed up his words swiftly and furiously in Eskimo.

"Stop!"

She almost shrieked the one word of warning, and with it a second shot
burned its way through the flesh of Blake's shoulder and he went down.
The revolver turned on Uppy, and instantly he was electrified into
life. Thirty seconds later, at the head of the team, he was leading the
way out into the chaotic gloom of the night. Hovering over Peter,
riding with her hand on the gee-bar of the sledge, Dolores looked back
to see Blake staggering to his feet. He shouted after them, and what he
said was in Uppy's tongue. And this time she could not stop him.

She had forgotten Wapi. But as the night swallowed them up, she still
looked back, and through the gloom she saw a shadow coming swiftly. In
a few moments Wapi was running at the tail of the sledge. Then she
leaned over Peter and encircled his shoulders with her furry arms.

"We're off!" she cried, a breaking note of gladness in her voice.
"We're off! And, Peter dear, wasn't it perfectly thrilling!"

A few minutes later she called upon Uppy to stop the team. Then she
faced him, close to Peter, with the revolver in her hand.

"Uppy," she demanded, speaking slowly and distinctly, "what was it
Blake said to you?"

For a moment Uppy made as if to feign stupidity. The revolver covered a
spot half-way between his narrow-slit eyes.

"I shall shoot--"

Uppy gave a choking gasp. "He said--no take trail For' Con'dence--go
wrong--he come soon get you."

"Yes, he said just that." She picked h