the top of the loaded sledge.

"Bah! how cowardly one can turn!" he muttered. "Of course, there will
be all those troubles to face. I'm fagged--that's what it is. Now,
then, old fellow, gee up! I'll camp in the first sheltered nook I see;
I'm sure to find one soon. Then supper in the warm bag and a good
night's rest. Sleep? I could lie down and sleep here in the snow.
Pull up! That's the way. I wonder how much gold I could drag on a
sledge like this?"

For quite another hour he toiled on, and perhaps got over a quarter of a
mile, always gazing anxiously ahead for a suitable shelter, but looking
in vain.

Then he utterly broke down, catching his foot against a block which the
darkness hid from his fast-dimming eyes; and with a sob of misery as he
saved himself from striking his face, at the expense of a heavy wrench
to one wrist, he lay perfectly still, feeling a strange drowsy sensation
creeping over him.

"This will not do," he cried aloud in alarm, for he knew that giving way
to such a feeling in the snow meant resigning himself to death; and he
painfully rose to his knees, and then remained, staring wildly before
him, wondering whether he was already dreaming. For not far away,
flashing and quivering in reflections from the precipice wall on his
left, there was a light which kept rising and falling.

No dream, but the reflected light of a camp fire. Others, bound upon
the same mission as himself, must be close at hand; and staggering now
to his feet, he placed his gloved hands to his lips and gave forth a
loud echoing "Ahoy!"

The next moment his heart beat high with joy, and the horrible perils of
frost and darkness in that unsheltered place faded away into
nothingness, for his hail was answered from close at hand.

"Ahoy! Who is it?" came echoing back.

"Help!" shouted the adventurer; and then he sank upon his sledge with
heart throbbing and a strange giddiness attacking him.

CHAPTER TWO.

FALLEN AMONG THIEVES.

"Hullo, there!" cried a rough voice. "Why don't you come on?" and the
next minute a couple of figures seemed to start out of the darkness.

"I'm fagged out. Can you lend me a hand?"

"Lend you a hand? Yes," said another voice. "Where's your mate?"

"I'm alone."

"Alone? No pal with you?"

"No, and my sledge has stuck fast. Will you help me as far as your
fire?"

"Got a sled, hev you? All right, mate. Where's the line? Lay hold,
Leggy, while I give it a hyste