the party could only go a mile or two, before Holfax would have to stop,
and run back to separate some of the savage animals, that seemed to
become more and more like wolves the farther north they went.

At last the Indian solved the problem by changing all the dogs about.
With new team-mates, the animals seemed to get along better.

One afternoon, just as they were about to go into camp, Johnson, who was
riding on the sled containing most of the provisions, got off, intending
to unharness his dogs, and tie them. No sooner was he off the sled than
the beasts ran away with it.

"Stop them! Catch them!" cried Mr. Baxter. "If they run away with that
load we'll starve."

Johnson needed no urging, but, as he had not put on his snowshoes, which
were on the back of the sled, he plunged up to his thighs into a deep
drift, and could make only slow progress, while the broad-runner sled
skimmed over the frozen snow at top speed, pulled by the wild dogs.

It looked serious for a few moments, but Holfax leaped on his sled, and
with a word to his trained beasts, sent them after the runaways,
rounding them up before they had gone more than a mile.

"We're getting to the end of this wilderness," remarked Mr. Baxter,
when the dogs had been driven back, and camp was in process of making.
"By to-morrow night we ought to be through it."

"Then where will we be?" asked Fred.

"At the edge of a big plateau, according to Holfax. That plain leads to
the second range of mountains, in which is located the waterfall, near
the cave of which the gold is supposed to be buried."

"I hope we find it," remarked Fred.

"So do I," added Mr. Baxter. "If we don't we'll have had a lot of
trouble and expense for nothing."

Fred felt the responsibility that rested on him, but he knew he was
taking the same chances as the others, though he was not risking as much
as was Mr. Baxter.

It was bitter cold that night. By the spirit thermometer it was nearly
fifty degrees below zero, and, wrapped up as they were, in thick furs,
with a great fire going outside the tent, and the alcohol stove lighted
inside, the adventurers were nearly frozen. They had to get up every now
and then, and stamp their feet and throw their arms about, in order to
keep the blood in circulation.

"Look at that," said Fred, as, in the glow from the alcohol stove, he
pointed to a mercury thermometer they had with them. The little silver
column had vanished from the tube, and t