ng-rope, and left the sled-harness on Brave, simply
detaching the traces.

At first, they walked easily on the sloping ice. Then, as it grew
steeper, he fastened the rope to the dog's harness and advanced a
little at a time, dragging Brave up after him. Soon he was forced to
snub the rope with his ice-staff and chop steps with his hatchet.
Toward noon--at least he thought it was noon--it began snowing again,
and the valley below was blotted out in a swirl of white.

They came to a narrow ledge, where they could rest, with a wall of ice
rising sheerly above them. He would have to climb that alone, and then
pull Brave up with the rope. He started working his way up the
perpendicular face, clinging by the pick of his ice-staff, chopping
footholds with the hatchet; the pack and the slung rifle on his back
pulled at him and threatened to drag him down. At length, he dragged
himself over the edge and drove the ice-staff in.

"Up, Brave!" he called, tugging on the rope. "Good dog, Brave; come
up!"

Brave tried to jump and slipped back. He tried again, and this time
Raud snubbed the rope and held him. Below the dog pawed frantically,
until he found a paw-hold on one of the chopped-out steps. Raud hauled
on the rope, and made another snub.

It seemed like hours. It probably was; his arms were aching, and he
had lost all sense of time, or of the cold, or the danger of the narrow
ledge; he forgot about the Crown and the men who had stolen it; he
even forgot how he had come here, or that he had ever been anywhere
else. All that mattered was to get Brave up on the ledge beside him.

Finally Brave came up and got first his fore-paws and then his body
over the edge. He lay still, panting proudly, while Raud hugged him
and told him, over and over, that he was a good dog. They rested for a
long time, and Raud got a slab of pemmican from the pack and divided
it with Brave.

It was while they rested in the snow, munching, that he heard the
sound for the first time. It was faint and far away, and it sounded
like thunder, or like an avalanche beginning, and that puzzled him,
for this was not the time of year for either. As he listened, he heard
it again, and this time he recognized it--negatron pistols. It
frightened him; he wondered if the thieves had met a band of hunters.
No; if they were fighting Northfolk, there would be the reports of
firearms, too. Or might they be fighting among themselves? Remembering
the melted brass stud