ise,
but beyond that he did not move.

As he lay there a sound reached his numbed ears. Clear through the
crisp night air it came with the keenness and piercing incision which
is only obtained in the still air of such latitudes. It was a human
cry: a long-drawn "whoop." Like his own cry, it echoed amongst the
hills. It only needed such as this to support the inclinations of the
sufferer's will. His head was again raised. And in his wild eyes was a
look of alertness--hope. He listened. He counted the echoes as they
came. Then, with an almost superhuman effort, he struggled to his
feet. New life had come to him born of hope. His weakened frame
answered to his great effort. His heart was throbbing wildly.

As he stood up the cry came to him again, nearer this time. He moved
forward and rounded the bend in the path. Again the cry. Now just
ahead of him. He answered it with joy in his tone and shambled on. Now
two dark figures loomed up in the grey twilight. They were moving
swiftly along the ledge towards him. They cried out something in a
foreign tongue. He did not understand, but his joy was no less. They
came up, and he saw before him the short, stout figures of two
fur-clad Eskimos. He was saved.

* * * * *

Inside a small dugout a dingy oil lamp shed its murky rays upon
squalid surroundings. The place was reeking with the offensive odours
exhaled from the burning oil. The atmosphere was stifling.

There were four occupants of this abode, and, stretched in various
attitudes on dusty blankets spread upon the ground, they presented a
strange picture. Two of these were Eskimos. The broad, flat faces,
sharp noses, and heavy lips were unmistakable, as were their dusky,
greasy skins and squat figures. A third man was something between the
white-man and the redskin. He was in the nature of a half-breed, and,
though not exactly pleasant to look upon, he was certainly interesting
as a study. He was lying with limbs outstretched and his head propped
upon one hand, while his gaze was directed with thoughtful intensity
towards a small, fierce-burning camp-stove, which, at that moment, was
rendering the hut so unbearably hot.

His face was sallow, and indented with smallpox scars. He had no hair
upon it, except a tuft or two of eyebrows, which the ravages of
disease had condescended to leave to him. His nose, which was his best
feature, was beaky, but beautifully aquiline; but his mou