s long as I dared, and at last set out, with
only enough flour and bacon to keep me going for two days. It was hard
travelling, for my dogs were of no use to me, the snow being too moist
for the passage of a sled. I had to work my way along by the
river-bank, through melting drifts and tangled scrub. I dared not
light a fire when I camped at night, lest it should be seen by the old
man, and he should steal up and kill me while I slept.

"I thought I began to see why he had gone away so meekly, though he
knew that a stranger had found him out and was likely to stumble on
his treasure: so long as I was in hiding, I had had him at a
disadvantage; but now, having gone away quietly without resistance, he
was able to await me under cover at the Forbidden River's mouth, and I
would be the one who would run most risk when we came to an encounter.
He had known that sooner or later I should run short of grub, and be
forced to return to the Last Chance, and to pass by his ambush; all
that he had to do was to await me, for there is but one way out.

"It took me three days to make the journey and when, as night was
falling, I came in sight of the spit of land which divides the two
rivers, on which the cache had been made, I had exhausted my supply of
rations. I was faint with hunger and perished with cold; but I dared
do nothing to provide for myself until I had made certain that I was
not spied upon.

"The river-mouth looked deserted enough; on either bank it was bare of
trees--a bald and bleak expanse of withered scrub, affording little
cover. It would be difficult for any man to approach me, without being
seen before he had come within gun-range. I followed along the
left-hand bank, which I had been travelling, till I reached the point
where the Last Chance and Forbidden Rivers join. Gazing up and down
the Last Chance, the same scene of desolation met my eyes; there was
no flash of camp-fire or sign of rising smoke. In the north, from
which quarter the wind was blowing, I could detect no smell of
burning. I began to think that I was safe, and determined to make
short work of breaking into the cache and getting back to the hut
again. Then I awoke to a fact which I had overlooked in my anxiety to
avoid a surprise attack, that the cache was on the right-hand bank and
that I was on the left.

"The river was flowing rapidly, carrying down tree-trunks and grinding
blocks of ice, so that it seemed impassable. Every now and then the