nd rising with every dozen
steps. If they threw themselves on the sledges to ride the dogs came
to a stop, for they could not haul them. If they walked they could not
keep their feet. Their course took them along the bed of Bartlett
River, and twice Grenfell and some of the others broke through into
the icy rapids.

At half past one in the morning they reached the mouth of Bartlett
River where it empties into the sea and between them and Cape Norman
lay twenty miles of unobstructed sea ice. They had been traveling for
nearly six hours and had covered but ten miles of the journey. The
temporary lull in the storm had long since passed, and now, beating
down upon the world with redoubled fury, it met them squarely in the
face. No dog could stem it. The men could scarce stand upright. The
clouds of snow suffocated them, and the cold was withering.

Far out they could hear the thunder of smashing ice. It was a threat
that the still firm ice lying before them might be broken into
fragments at any time. Sea water had already driven over it, forming a
thick coating of half-frozen slush. Even though the gale that swept
the ice field had not been too fierce to face, any attempt to cross
would obviously have been a foolhardy undertaking.

XIX

HOW AMBROSE WAS MADE TO WALK

One of the men from Cape Norman had been acting as leader on the trail
from St. Anthony. His name was Will, and he was a big broad-shouldered
man, a giant of a fellow. He knew all the trappers on this part of the
coast, and where their trapping grounds lay. One of his neighbors,
whom he spoke of as "Si," trapped in the neighborhood where the
baffled men now found themselves.

"I'm rememberin', now, Si built a tilt handy by here," he suddenly
exclaimed.

"A tilt!" Grenfell was sceptical. "I've been going up and down this
coast for twenty years and I never heard of a tilt near here."

"He built un last fall. I thinks, now, I could find un," Will
suggested.

"Find it if you can," urged Grenfell hopefully. "Where is it?"

"'Tis in a bunch of trees, somewheres handy."

"Is there a stove in it?"

"I'm not knowin' that. I'll try to find un and see."

They had retreated to the edge of the forest. Will disappeared among
the trees, and Grenfell and the others waited. It was still six hours
to daylight, and to stand inactive for six hours in the storm and
biting cold would have been perilous if not fatal.

Presently Will's shout came out of the f