lly. "I'm ready for anything here.
Sounds like the mountains playing at skittles."

"She's going at last," cried a voice outside. "By jingo! it's fine.
Come and look."

"It's the ice breaking up," cried Dallas excitedly.

"Then we will go and look," said Tregelly, "though that chap wasn't
speaking to us." And, no dressing being necessary, all hurried out, to
find that the fettered Yukon was completely changed, the ice being all
in motion, splitting up, grinding, and crushing, and with blocks being
forced up one over the other till they toppled down with a roar, to help
in breaking up those around.

The previous evening it would have been possible for a regiment to cross
the river by climbing over and among the great blocks which were still
frozen together, but now it would have been certain death for the most
active man to attempt the first fifty yards.

Every one was out in the bright sunny morning watching the breaking up;
and among the first they encountered were the judge, of the last night's
episode, and their friend the gold-finder, both of whom shook hands
heartily, but made no allusion to the trial. "Good job for every one,"
said the judge; "we shall soon be having boats up after this. We shall
be clear here in a couple of days."

"So soon?" said Dallas.

"Oh, yes," replied his informant. "There's a tremendous body of water
let loose up above, and it runs under the ice, lifts it, and makes the
ice break up; and once it is set in motion it is always grinding
smaller, till, long before it reaches the sea, it has become powder, and
then water again."

"I say," cried the miner, "there's some one's dog out yonder. He's
nipped by the legs, and it's about all over with him, I should say."

"Here, stop! What are you going to do?" cried the judge.

But Dallas did not hear him. He had been one of the first to see the
perilous position of a great wolfish-looking hound some twenty yards
from the shore, where it was struggling vainly, prisoned as it was,
uttering a faint yelp every now and then, and gazing piteously at the
spectators on the bank.

"The lad's mad," cried the judge, going closer to the ice.

But, mad or no, Dallas had, in his ignorance of the great danger of the
act, run down, boldly leaped on the moving ice, and stepped from block
to block till he reached the dog, which began to whine and bark loudly,
as it made frantic efforts to free its hindquarters. In another minute
it would have