ight."

He threw off his blanket and, picking up a Marlin rifle, which was
their only weapon, strode out of camp; and as he was a good shot and
tracker they let him go. It was getting dark when he left the shelter
of the trees, and the cold in the open struck through him like a knife.
The moon had not yet risen and the waste stretched away before him, its
whiteness changed to a soft blue-gray. In the distance scattered
bluffs rose in long dark smears; but there was nothing to indicate
which way Blake should turn, and he had no reason to believe there was
a caribou near the camp. As a matter of fact, they had found the
larger deer remarkably scarce.

Blake was tired, after breaking the trail since sunrise, and the snow
was loose beneath his big net shoes, but he plodded toward the farthest
bluff, feeling that he was largely to blame for the party's
difficulties. Knowing something of the country, he should have
insisted on turning back when he found they could obtain no dog teams
to transport their supplies. Occasionally Hudson Bay agents and
patrols of the North-West Police made long journeys in arctic weather;
but they were provided with proper sleds and sufficient preserved food.
Indeed, Blake was astonished that he and his comrades had got so far.
He had given way to Harding, who hardly knew the risks he ran, and now
he supposed that he must take the consequences. This did not daunt him
badly. After all, life had not much to offer an outcast; he had
managed to extract some amusement from it, but he had nothing to look
forward to. There was no prospect of his making money--his talents
were not commercial--and the hardships he could bear now would press on
him more heavily as he grew older.

These considerations, however, were too philosophical for him to dwell
on. He was essentially a man of action, and was feeling unpleasantly
hungry, and he quickened his pace, knowing that the chance of his
getting a shot at a caribou in the open was small.

The moon had not risen when he reached the bluff, but the snow
reflected a faint light and he noticed a row of small depressions on
its surface. Kneeling down, he examined them, but there had been wind
during the day and the marks were blurred. He felt for a match, but
his fingers were too numbed to open the watertight case, and he
proceeded to measure the distance between the footprints. This was an
unreliable test, as a big deer's stride varies with its pace, bu