id the dogs kept on, straight for
the Indian camp, beyond which they had almost passed.

"We've got 'em!" yelled Callack. Then he cried some commands in the
Alaskan tongue.

"Shall we fire?" cried Fred.

"No, don't!" replied Mr. Baxter. "You can't tell where you are aiming.
You might kill one of us. I guess it's all up. But I'm glad I buried the
gold," he added to himself.

A moment later the adventurers were fairly in the hostile camp, and
Jacob Callack and his men had surrounded them.

"Surrender! We've got you!" yelled the rascally white man.

"Yes, you've got us," admitted Mr. Baxter coolly, "but you wouldn't have
if our dogs hadn't turned back."

"They're fine dogs," answered Callack with a sneer. "I think I'll take
'em for myself. Now then, get off your sleds and we'll talk business.
After I have the gold I may consent to let you have your dogs back,
though you don't deserve it, for you've made me a lot of trouble."

He spoke as though he had a right to steal the treasure from those who
had found it, and as if they had no right to resist. Callack called
something to his men, and a moment later they were pulling the treasure
finders from the sleds and binding them with thongs of deer skin, having
first taken their guns away.

Mr. Baxter and the two boys submitted with what grace they could to
these indignities. But Johnson, the big colored man, fought with all his
strength against the Indians. And, as he was very strong, and they were
not very muscular, he tumbled several of them in a heap.

"There ain't no ugly ole Indian gwine t' tie up George Johnson without a
fight, that's what they ain't!" he exclaimed.

"Rush at him all together!" called Callack to his men in the Alaskan
tongue. Four or five of them did rush, but even they were no match for
Johnson, who caught them in his long, powerful arms and tossed them over
his shoulder, one by one, into a deep snow bank.

"I'll fix you!" yelled Callack, springing toward the fighting colored
man, whose gun had been taken away.

The leader of the ugly Indians raised his rifle by the barrel and
brought the stock down with terrific force on the head of Johnson.

Even protected as his skull was by a thick fur cap, the blow felled the
negro like an ox. With a groan he sank down on the snow.

"There," said Callack, addressing Mr. Baxter. "That's the way I serve
them as don't do what I say."

"You're a coward, to strike a defenseless man," said Mr. Baxter
co