rmly. "Now I'll go; then do
you start the dogs down, and come yourself as quick as you please."

[Illustration: FOR A MOMENT THE SENSATION WAS SICKENING.]

Thus saying, the plucky lad seated himself on a snow-shoe, took Nel-te,
still in the fur bag, in his lap, and launched himself over the edge of
the cliff. For a moment the sensation, which was that of falling from a
great height, was sickening, and a thick mist seemed to obscure his
vision.

Then it cleared away, and was followed by a feeling of the wildest
exhilaration as he heard the whistling backward rush of air, and
realized the tremendous speed at which he was whizzing through space.
Ere it seemed possible that he could have gone half-way to the
timber-line trees began to fly past him, and he knew that the worst was
over. In another minute he was floundering in a drift of soft snow, into
which he had plunged up to his neck, and the perilous feat was
successfully accomplished.

Poor Serge arrived at the same point shortly afterwards, head first, and
dove out of sight in the drift; but fortunately Phil was in a position
to extricate him before he smothered. The dogs appeared a moment later,
with somewhat less velocity, but badly demoralized, and evidently
feeling that they had been sadly ill-treated by their driver. So the
sledge party had safely descended in five minutes a distance equal to
that which they had spent half a day and infinite toil in ascending on
the other side of the mountains.

When Nel-te was released from the fur bag and set on his feet he was as
calm and self-possessed as though nothing out of the usual had happened,
and immediately demanded something to eat.

After a long search they discovered the sledge, with only one rail
broken and its load intact.

"Now for a fire and breakfast!" cried Phil, heading towards the timber,
as soon as the original order of things was restored. "After that we
will make one more effort to find some trace of poor Jalap, though I
don't believe there is the slightest chance of success."

They entered the forest of wide-spreading but stunted evergreens, and
Phil, axe in hand, was vigorously attacking a dead spruce, when an
exclamation from his companion caused him to pause in his labor and look
around. "What can that be?" asked Serge, pointing to a thick hemlock
that stood but a few yards from them. The lower end of its drooping
branches were deep buried in snow, but such part as was still visible
was in