hey have no power to guide him. He
simply trots along in his place beside the other sled.

Marian had thought this an admirable arrangement until now. It left
her free to admire the sharp triangles of deep purple and light yellow
which lay away in the distance, a massive mountain range whose tops at
times smoked with the snow of an oncoming blizzard. Or, if she tired
of this, she might sit and dream of many things as they glided over the
snow. But now with a wolf-pack on their trail, with the nearest human
habitation many miles away, with her reindeer doing his utmost to keep
up with the racing lead-deer, that slender jerk-line with which she
could do so little seemed a fragile "life-line" in case of emergency.

With wrinkled brow she watched the pack which now had made its way down
the hillside and was following in full cry on their trail. They were
not gaining; her heart was cheered by that. At least she did not think
they were, yet, yes, there was one, a giant wolf, a third larger than
his fellows, outstripping the others. Now he appeared to be ten yards
ahead of them, now twenty, now thirty. The rest were only holding the
pace of the reindeer, but this one was gaining, there was no mistaking
that. She shivered at the thought.

It was a perilous moment, and she felt so helpless. She longed to urge
her deer to go faster. She could not do that. He was keeping his
place with difficulty. She could only sit and hope that somehow the
wolf-leader would tire of the chase.

Even now she was not sorry they had come, but it was unfortunate, she
thought, that there were no rifles on their sleds. Ad-loo-at had taken
with him only an old-fashioned native lance, a sharp steel point set
upon a long wooden handle. That was all the weapon they had and, foot
by foot, yard by yard, the gaunt, gray marauder was coming closer.
Marian fancied she could hear the chop-chop of his frothing jaws.

Then, suddenly came catastrophe. With the mad perversity of his kind,
her sled deer, suddenly turning from his position beside the sled,
whirled about in a wide, sweeping circle which threatened to overturn
her sled and leave her alone, defenseless against the hungry pack.

It was a terrible moment. Gripping the ropings of the sled with one
hand, she tugged at the jerk-rein with the other.

"It's no use," she cried in despair; "I can't turn him."

One glance down the trail turned her heart faint; her sled-deer was now
racing