f grim
satisfaction on his face; whatever he had gone to do he had done in a
manner to please him. She noted that his coat was off; that in it, as in
a bag, he carried something heavy.

"This goes with us wherever we go," he announced triumphantly. "It's a
big breathing spell for Ben Gaynor." He dumped it out; there were other
lumps like the two he had brought back the first time. She wondered
dully if that grimy stuff were gold! She watched him while he emptied a
provision-bag and thereafter dropped into it the stuff he had brought in
his coat. On top of it went the articles of food.

"If you can whip up enough endurance for the work ahead of us," he
announced impersonally, "we stand a good chance of getting out of this.
Otherwise, we stand a whole lot better show of being caught here and
freezing and starving to death."

Gloria shook visibly. Nervousness and fear and the cold were combined
and merciless. Her look sped from King's face to what she could see of
the snow-storm.

"But we'll wait," she asked in utter, weary meekness, "until this
horrible storm is over?"

"One never knows about a storm like this," he told her. "It may blow
itself out soon and it may keep on for a long time. Now, it's beginning
to pile up in the drifts, to hide the trails, to make going harder every
minute. As it is we'll have our work cut out for us; if this keeps up
all afternoon and all night ..." He shrugged.

"You mean that then we couldn't get out at all?" she asked sharply.

He looked down on her thoughtfully. "I don't know," he replied slowly,
"whether you could make it then or not. I am more or less used to this
sort of thing and you are not. I figure that we ought to take no more
long shots than we have to. If we start right now and have any luck we
can make several miles before night and camp in some of the thick
timber. We'd be as well off there as we are here and just that much
nearer the outside. If the weather allowed us to travel at all we could
be back at your father's place in four or five days at the longest.
And," he added significantly, "we have food to last us just about that
long."

Gloria sprang up hastily. "Quick," she cried. "Let's hurry."

King nodded and began his preparations. Into the squares of canvas he
rolled everything they were to take with them, and he took no single
article which he judged was not absolutely necessary. One small
frying-pan and one light aluminium pot, with single knife, fork, a