and that raised their spirits.

"Don't you suppose, if we made a drag for Tom, that we could get back
to Dawson somehow?" questioned Sam, after all had been outside to look
at the sky.

"Well, we kin try it, if ye say so," answered Jack Wumble. "It sure
ain't no fun stayin' here, with no more grub showin' itself. If I
could only shoot a wildcat fer the meat I'd feel better."

With so much brushwood at hand it was an easy matter to construct a
rude sled-like drag for poor Tom. To make it more comfortable they
heaped on it some tundra moss which they found growing on one of the
wind-swept stretches nearby.

"Where are you going to take me?" demanded the sufferer, when told that
they were going to leave the place.

"We are going to take you to a safe shelter, Tom, and then home,"
answered Dick.

"Home! That sounds good!" murmured Tom. "I'll be glad to get there
and rest!" and he gave a long-drawn sigh.

The start was made by ten o'clock, Tom being warmly wrapped in
blankets, and all the traps being piled on the drag in front and behind
him. A rope had been tied fast in front and on this Wumble and Dick
pulled, while Sam had hold of the drag itself, to pull and to steer.

It was still bitter cold and many times on the way those hauling the
drag stopped, to make sure that Tom was comfortable and in no danger of
getting his nose or his ears frostbitten. Fortunately the route was
largely down hill, so pulling the long drag was not such a hardship as
it otherwise might have been.

At noon they stopped in a small hollow, sheltered from the wind, and
made themselves a hot pot of coffee, and ate a frugal lunch. Tom sat
up for a few minutes and the others were glad to see that the journey
had done him no harm, either physically or mentally.

By the middle of the afternoon it was snowing again and they had all
they could do to keep to the trail. The old miner shook his head
dubiously.

"Reckon as how we're up against it," was his comment. "If it gits much
wuss we'll have to look fer another shelter, boys."

The wind had let up during the middle of the day, but now it commenced
to blow with a suddenness that was alarming. It sent the whirling snow
into their faces with pitiless fury and almost blinded them, while they
breathed with difficulty.

"Got to git out o' this, an' mighty quick too!" gasped Jack Wumble.

"Which way shall we turn, Jack?" questioned Dick. "I can't see at all."

"I think thar's a