?" he
queried.

She shrugged her shoulders, not wishing to remember the incident.

"It was the first time anything like that had happened to me," he resumed,
"and it was like touching heaven while it lasted. But I see now there was
nothing in it--no more than kissing one of them saloon women---- Ugh!"

She felt like striking him, in her anger, at the insulting comparison, but
she was not unconscious of the truth of it.... She opened the book again,
and strove to forget his presence and the approaching horror of Arctic
wanderings. She saw him pull the fur cap down over his ears, and disappear
through the tent opening to feed the howling malemutes.

On the morrow they packed their tent, loaded the sled with everything they
possessed, and set their head for the North. She sat on the sled, clad in
thick mackinaw coat, fur cap, and mittens, whilst Jim stood behind with a
twenty-foot whip clasped in his hand. The mixed team of twelve dogs
snarled and snapped at each other as they waited for the word of command.

"Mush--you malemutes!" cried Jim.

The long curling whip came down with a whistling crack, and the team went
trotting across the dazzling white plain.

CHAPTER XIII

THE TERROR OF THE NORTH

There is no stillness like the stillness of the Arctic. In the frozen
wastes of the North the human voice is a blessed and desirable thing.
Imagine an ice-locked land, stretching on either hand for thousands of
miles, with never a bird's song to break the silence, where nothing lives
but a few starved wolves, and consumptive Indians existing for the most
part in foetid igloos, venturing out but rarely in search of edible roots
or an occasional indigenous animal. Ninety per cent. of the human life of
Alaska was settled along the Yukon valley, in close proximity to the vast
artery that connected with the outer world.

North of that the boundless wilderness stretches away over plain and
mountain to the very pole. Traveling is slow and tortuous, for beaten
trails are few, and the wanderer must "pack" his own trail where the snow
is deep--walking in front of the sled and treading a negotiable sled-track
by means of snow-shoes.

The body craves for warmth, and warmth can only be obtained by excessive
consumption of food. The normal ration of a healthy being is trebled to
counteract the enormous evaporation of bodily heat. Fat is the staff of
life. The Esquimo, settled along the coast by the Bering Sea, takes his
mea