they rarely made more than eight or ten miles in a day of
exhausting labor. Several dogs broke their legs amid the chaotic ice
blocks of the ever-recurring ridges, and had to be shot. Along the
palisaded Ramparts it was difficult to find timbered places in which to
camp. Their dog feed was running low, and there was none to be had in
the wretched native villages that they passed at long intervals.

At length the setting sun of one evening found them at a point where the
river, narrowed to a few hundred yards, was bounded on one side by a
lofty precipice of rock, and on the other by a steeply sloping bank
that, devoid of timber, seemed to descend from an open plateau. They
halted beside a single log of drift that, half embedded in ice, was the
only available bit of firewood in sight. It was a bleak and bitter place
in which to spend an arctic night, and they shivered in anticipation of
what they were to suffer during its long hours.

"I am going to climb to the top of the bank," said Serge, "and see if I
can't find some more wood. If I do, I'll roll it down; so look out!"

Suiting his action to his words the active lad started with a run that
carried him a few yards up the steep ascent. It was so abrupt that he
was on the point of sliding back, and dug his heel sharply into the snow
to secure a hold. At the same instant he uttered a cry, threw up his
arms, and dropped from the sight of his astonished companions as though
he had fallen down a well.

Before they could make a move toward his rescue they were more astounded
than ever to hear his voice, somewhat muffled, but apparently close
beside them.

"I'm all right!" he cried, cheerily. "That is, I think I am, and I
believe I can cut my way out. Don't try to climb the bank. Just wait a
minute."

Then the bank began to tremble as though shaken by a gentle earthquake,
and suddenly a hand clutching a knife shot out from it so close to Jalap
Coombs that the startled sailor leaped back to avoid it, stumbled over a
sledge, and plunged headlong among his own team of dogs, who were lying
in the snow beyond, patiently waiting to be unharnessed. By the time the
yelling, howling mass of man and dogs was disentangled and separated,
Serge had emerged from the mysterious bank, and stood looking as though
he did not quite understand what had happened. Behind him was a black
opening into which Phil was peering with the liveliest curiosity.

"Of all the miracles I ever heard of th