hten it,
although it impeded his progress greatly. He struggled forward as the
howls drew nearer; and then, when it seemed that he would have to give
up, a faint glow of light broke out and he turned toward it with a
hoarse cry. An answer reached him, the light grew brighter, and he was
in among the trees.

Benson met him, and a minute later he flung himself down, exhausted, by
the fire.

"I've brought you your supper, boys," he gasped, "but the wolves are on
my trail!"

Harding grabbed the rifle, while Benson poked at the fire until a
larger flame swept up, lighting clearly a radius of several yards; but
the wolves, fearing the fire or scenting some other prey, had branched
off to the right, and the men could hear their howls growing fainter in
the distance.

"We'll have a feast to-night, boys," Benson said, hastily preparing the
meal.

They ate with keen appetite, and afterward went to sleep; and when they
reached the woods the next morning nothing was left of the caribou
except the meat in the tree and a few clean-picked bones.

With a sufficient quantity of meat to stave off their anxiety regarding
the question of food, the men spent two days enjoying a badly needed
rest; and then they pushed on, making forced marches which severely
taxed their strength. Part of their way, however, lay across open
country, for they were near the northern edge of the timber belt, and
the straggling trees, dwarfed and bent by the wind, ran east and west
in a deeply indented line. In some places they boldly stretched out
toward the Pole in long promontories; in others they fell back in wide
bays which Blake, steering by compass, held straight across, afterward
plunging again into the scrub. Three days were spent in struggling
through the broadest tongue, but, as a rule, a few hours' arduous march
brought them out into the open. Even there the ground was very rough
and broken, and they were thankful for the numerous frozen creeks and
lakes which provided an easier road.

Pushing on stubbornly, camping where they could find shelter and wood,
for they could hardly have survived a night spent in the open without a
fire, they made, by calculation, two hundred miles; and Blake believed
that they must surely be near the Hudson Bay post.

CHAPTER XVII

A RESPITE

Light snow was driving across the waste before a savage wind when the
party sat at breakfast one morning. Day had broken, but there was
little light, and B