skin bale. He could smell
it, though he carefully felt to be certain. On the other side his face
barely touched a furry garment which he knew clothed a body. This must
be Sipsu. Though he wished she would speak again, he resolved to risk
it.

He could hear the chief and the witch doctor talking high, and in a far
corner some hungry child whimpering to sleep. Squirming over on his
side, he carefully raised his head, still just touching the furry
garment. He listened to the breathing. It was a woman's breathing; he
would chance it.

He pressed against her side softly but firmly, and felt her start at the
contact. Again he waited, till a questioning hand slipped down upon his
head and paused among the curls. The next instant the hand turned his
face gently upward, and he was gazing into Sipsu's eyes.

She was quite collected. Changing her position casually, she threw an
elbow well over on the skin bale, rested her body upon it, and arranged
her _parka_. In this way he was completely concealed. Then, and still
most casually, she reclined across him, so that he could breathe between
her arm and breast, and when she lowered her head her ear pressed lightly
against his lips.

"When the time suits, go thou," he whispered, "out of the lodge and
across the snow, down the wind to the bunch of jackpine in the curve of
the creek. There wilt thou find my dogs and my sled, packed for the
trail. This night we go down to the Yukon; and since we go fast, lay
thou hands upon what dogs come nigh thee, by the scruff of the neck, and
drag them to the sled in the curve of the creek."

Sipsu shook her head in dissent; but her eyes glistened with gladness,
and she was proud that this man had shown toward her such favor. But
she, like the women of all her race, was born to obey the will masculine,
and when Hitchcock repeated "Go!" he did it with authority, and though
she made no answer he knew that his will was law.

"And never mind harness for the dogs," he added, preparing to go. "I
shall wait. But waste no time. The day chaseth the night alway, nor
does it linger for man's pleasure."

Half an hour later, stamping his feet and swinging his arms by the sled,
he saw her coming, a surly dog in either hand. At the approach of these
his own animals waxed truculent, and he favored them with the butt of his
whip till they quieted. He had approached the camp up the wind, and
sound was the thing to be most feared in making