eant
ten along the tops.

"Get on the sled, Doc, an' take a snooze," Daw invited.

The glare from the black eyes prevented him from repeating the
suggestion.

As early as midday they received definite warning of the beginning of
the end. Cakes of ice, borne downward in the rapid current, began to
thunder beneath the ice on which they stood. The dogs whimpered
anxiously and yearned for the bank.

"That means open water above," Daw explained. "Pretty soon she'll jam
somewheres, an' the river'll raise a hundred feet in a hundred minutes.
It's us for the tops if we can find a way to climb out. Come on! Hit her
up I! An' just to think, the Yukon'll stick solid for weeks."

Unusually narrow at this point, the great walls of the canyon were too
precipitous to scale. Daw and Linday had to keep on; and they kept on
till the disaster happened. With a loud explosion, the ice broke asunder
midway under the team. The two animals in the middle of the string went
into the fissure, and the grip of the current on their bodies dragged
the lead-dog backward and in. Swept downstream under the ice, these
three bodies began to drag to the edge the two whining dogs that
remained. The men held back frantically on the sled, but were slowly
drawn along with it. It was all over in the space of seconds. Daw
slashed the wheel-dog's traces with his sheath-knife, and the animal
whipped over the ice-edge and was gone. The ice on which they stood,
broke into a large and pivoting cake that ground and splintered against
the shore ice and rocks. Between them they got the sled ashore and up
into a crevice in time to see the ice-cake up-edge, sink, and
down-shelve from view.

Meat and sleeping furs were made into packs, and the sled was abandoned.
Linday resented Daw's taking the heavier pack, but Daw had his will.

"You got to work as soon as you get there. Come on."

It was one in the afternoon when they started to climb. At eight that
evening they cleared the rim and for half an hour lay where they had
fallen. Then came the fire, a pot of coffee, and an enormous feed of
moosemeat. But first Linday hefted the two packs, and found his own
lighter by half.

"You're an iron man, Daw," he admired.

"Who? Me? Oh, pshaw! You ought to see Rocky. He's made out of platinum,
an' armour plate, an' pure gold, an' all strong things. I'm mountaineer,
but he plumb beats me out. Down in Curry County I used to 'most kill the
boys when we run bear. So when I h