heir separate camping-grounds were not more than three
miles apart!

Well was it then for Adolay that her stout protector was a light
sleeper, as well as a man of iron frame, and that he had aroused her
fully an hour and a half sooner than the time at which the Indians left
their camp to resume the chase. It was well, also, that Cheenbuk
required but a short rest to recruit his strength and enable him to
resume the paddle with his full vigour. The joy, also, consequent upon
the discovery that he loved the Indian girl, and that she had made up
her mind, without any persuasion on his part, to run away with him, lent
additional power to his strong back. Perhaps, also, a sympathetic
feeling in the breast of the maiden added to the strength of her
well-formed and by no means feeble arm, so that many miles were soon
added to the three which intervened between the chasers and the chased.
To the horror of Adolay she found when she and Cheenbuk reached the
mouth of the river, that the sea was extensively blocked by masses of
ice, which extended out as far as the eye could reach.

Although thus encumbered, however, the sea was by no means choked up
with it, and to the gaze of the young Eskimo the ice presented no
insurmountable obstacle, for his experienced eye could trace leads and
lanes of open water as far as the first group of distant islets, which
lay like scarce perceptible specks on the horizon.

But to the inexperienced eye of the girl the scene was one of hopeless
confusion, and it filled her with sudden alarm and despair, though she
possessed more than the usual share of the Dogrib women's courage.
Observing her alarm, Cheenbuk gave her a look of encouragement, but
avoided telling her not to be afraid, for his admiration of her was too
profound to admit of his thinking that she could really be frightened,
whatever her looks might indicate.

"The ice is our friend to-day," he said, with a cheery smile, as they
stood together on the seashore beside their canoe, surveying the
magnificent scene of snowy field, fantastic hummock, massive berg, and
glittering pinnacle that lay spread out before them.

Adolay felt, but did not express surprise, for she was filled with a
most commendable trust in the truth and wisdom as well as the courage of
the man to whose care she had committed herself.

"If you say the ice is our friend, it must be so," she remarked quietly,
"but to the Indian girl it seems as if the ice was our f