ere
agreeably surprised to find only a small drift against the doorway. As
they emerged from it they were for a few minutes blinded by the
marvellous brilliancy of their sunlit surroundings. Gradually becoming
accustomed to the intense light, they gazed eagerly about for some sign
of their missing comrade, but there was none. They followed back for a
mile over the way they had come the evening before, shouting and firing
their guns, but without avail.

No answering shout came back to their straining ears, and there was
nothing to indicate the tale of the lost man. Sadly and soberly the lads
retraced their steps, and prepared to resume their journey. To remain
longer in that place meant starvation and death. To save themselves they
must push on.

They shuddered at the precipice they had escaped, and over which they
feared their comrade had plunged. At its foot lay a valley, which,
though it trended westward, and so away from their course, Phil
determined to follow; for, far below their lofty perch, and still miles
away from where they stood, it held the dark mass he had seen the night
before, and knew to be timber. Besides, his sole desire at that moment
was to escape from those awful heights and reach the coast at some
point; he hardly cared whether it were inhabited or not.

So the sledge was dug from its bed of snow and reloaded: the dogs were
harnessed. Poor little Nel-te, crying with hunger, was slipped into his
fur travelling-bag, and a start was made to search for some point of
descent. At length they found a place where the slope reached to the
very top of the cliff, but so sharply that it was like the roof of a
house several miles in length.

"I hate the looks of it," said Phil, "but as there doesn't seem to be
any other way, I suppose we've got to try it. I should say that for at
least three miles it was as steep as the steepest part of a toboggan
slide, though, and I'm pretty certain we sha'n't care to try it more
than once."

"I guess we can do it all right," replied Serge, "but there's only one
way, and that is to sit on a snow-shoe and slide. We couldn't keep on
our feet a single second."

They lifted Nel-te, fur bag and all, from the sledge, tightened the
lashings of its load, which included the guns and extra snow-shoes, and
started it over the verge. It flashed down the declivity like a rocket,
and the last they saw of it it was rolling over and over.

"Looks cheerful, doesn't it?" said Phil, fi