led in the igloos
after their day's hunt, Akonuk announced that he and Matuk were to
return home the next morning. This renewed the discussion as to who
should go on with Bob, and the upshot of it was that two young
fellows--Netseksoak and Aluktook--with the promise that Mr. Forbes
would reward them for aiding to bring the letters which Bob carried,
volunteered to make the journey.

This settled the matter to Bob's satisfaction and it was agreed that,
as the season was far advanced, it would be necessary to start at once
in order to give the two men time to reach home again before the
spring break-up of the ice.

Long before daylight the next morning the Eskimos were lashing the
load on the komatik and at dawn the dogs were harnessed and everything
ready. Bob said good-bye to Akonuk and Matuk and the two teams took
different directions and were soon lost to each other's view.

"'Twill not be long now," said Bob to himself, "an' we gets t' th'
Bay."

The sun at midday was now so warm that it softened the snow, which,
freezing towards evening, made a hard ice crust over which the komatik
slipped easily and permitted of very fast travelling until the snow
began to soften again towards noon. Therefore the early part of the
day was to be taken advantage of.

The new team, containing eleven dogs, was really made up of two small
teams, one of six dogs belonging to Netseksoak and the other of five
dogs the property of Aluktook. At first the two sets of dogs were
inclined to be quarrelsome and did not work well together. At the very
start they had a pitched battle which resulted in the crippling of
Aluktook's leader to such an extent that for two days it was almost
useless.

However, with the good going fast time was made. Usually they kept to
the sea ice, but sometimes took short cuts across necks of land where,
as had been the case near Ungava, the men had to haul on the traces
with the dogs.

The new drivers were much younger men than Akonuk and Matuk and they
were in many respects more companionable. But Bob missed a sort of
fatherly interest that the others had shown in him and did not rely so
implicitly upon their judgment.

Able now as he was to understand very much of their conversation, he
took part in the discussion of various routes and expressed his
opinion as to them; and the Eskimos, who at first had looked upon him
as a more or less inexperienced kablunok, soon began to feel that he
knew nearly as much