ave his Indian yell to the dogs, they
settled into their harness, and once more the sleds were being pulled
northward. The dogs seemed to be in better humor after their unexpected
meal of frozen fish, and they hauled well together.

It was a bleak and cheerless landscape that lay before the travelers.
The vast snow-covered plain stretched out before them, and, at their
backs, was the desolate, black wilderness. Only the hope of gold kept
their hearts stout.

Over the hard crust scurried the dogs, their toe-nails scratching the
hard ice. Occasionally they yelped or barked, probably in protest at
being made to haul such heavy loads. But Holfax kept them at their
tasks.

As they advanced the day became dreary in the extreme. The sun was
hidden by misty clouds, and the wind was cold and cutting. Then a few
fine flakes of snow sifted down.

"Storm come," remarked Holfax, tightening the robes about him.

"Guess you're right," admitted Mr. Baxter. The moisture in the air,
which preceded the storm, had, with his breath, condensed on his beard,
and about his mouth was a ball of snow, as large as his two fists. He
actually had to crush it off his beard before he could speak.

Then with a sudden fury the snow came down in a blinding cloud. Only the
fact that the four dog teams were fastened together by a long piece of
deer hide prevented them from becoming separated in the fog of frozen
crystals.

"Can Holfax see to guide us?" shouted Fred, above the howl of the wind.

"I guess so," answered Mr. Baxter. "We'll have to trust to him, anyhow."

It was the worst weather they had yet met with, and it was all the
Indian could do to induce the dogs to continue. It needed the spur of
his long whip, and his angry voice, calling to them in strange words, to
keep them on the trot.

At last even the hardened Indian had to give it up. It was almost
certain death to face that blast from the north any longer.

"Got to camp!" shouted Holfax, above the roar of the gale, and he began
to unharness the dogs.

It was desperate work to get the tent up, but they managed to do it, and
also to build a roaring fire of logs which the Indian dug out from under
the snow with one of the shovels that had been brought along. Then, in
the combined shelter of the tent and the upturned sleds, with a big pot
of hot tea and some sizzling bacon, the gold hunters tried to forget
their hardships.

But it was not easy to do, and there were grave apprehens