ey
were not at all what he had intended to say.

The injured man demurred, but the other insisted gruffly, then brought
him his mittens and cap, slapping the snow out of them before rousing
the team to motion. The load was very heavy now, the dogs had no
footprints to guide them, and it required all of Cantwell's efforts to
prevent capsizing. Night approached swiftly, the whirling snow particles
continued to flow past upon the wind, shrouding the earth in an
impenetrable pall.

The journey soon became a terrible ordeal, a slow, halting progress that
led nowhere and was accomplished at the cost of tremendous exertion.
Time after time Johnny broke trail, then returned and urged the huskies
forward to the end of his tracks. When he lost the path he sought it
out, laboriously hoisted the sledge back into place, and coaxed his
four-footed helpers to renewed effort. He was drenched with
perspiration, his inner garments were steaming, his outer ones were
frozen into a coat of armor; when he paused he chilled rapidly. His
vision was untrustworthy, also, and he felt snow-blindness coming on.
Grant begged him more than once to unroll the bedding and prepare to
sleep out the storm; he even urged Johnny to leave him and make a dash
for his own safety, but at this the younger man cursed and told him to
hold his tongue.

Night found the lone driver slipping, plunging, lurching ahead of the
dogs, or shoving at the handle-bars and shouting at the dogs. Finally,
during a pause for rest he heard a sound which roused him. Out of the
gloom to the right came the faint, complaining howl of a malamute; it
was answered by his own dogs, and the next moment they had caught a
scent which swerved them shoreward and led them scrambling through the
drifts. Two hundred yards, and a steep bank loomed above, up and over
which they rushed, with Cantwell yelling encouragement; then a light
showed, and they were in the lee of a low-roofed hut.

A sick native, huddled over a Yukon stove, made them welcome to his mean
abode, explaining that his wife and son had gone to Unalaklik for
supplies.

Johnny carried his partner to the one unoccupied bunk and stripped his
clothes from him. With his own hands he rubbed the warmth back into
Mortimer's limbs, then swiftly prepared hot food, and, holding him in
the hollow of his aching arm, fed him, a little at a time. He was like
to drop from exhaustion, but he made no complaint. With one folded robe
he made the