the dog shot away over the ice.

"A trail!" he muttered, following on.

The ice was hard and smooth. A soft skin "muckluck" would leave no
mark. Even the hard toes of a white bear would not scratch it.

When the boy had followed for a half-hour, he thought of these things,
and paused to consider. What if he were following the meandering trail
of a lumbering white bear? And if it happened to be a trail of a human
being, was it his own trail, that of the girls, or of the bearded miner
and his guide?

His compass would tell something. Studying his compass then, he walked
forward slowly.

Fifteen minutes of this told him that this was no white bear's trail.
It went too straight ahead for that. Neither could it be his own
trail, for he would have come to a sudden turn before this. One thing
more was certain: The person or persons who made this trail were headed
due south by east. They would, if they did not change their course, in
time reach the vicinity of the Diomede Islands. Were they his friends,
or the unfaithful guide and his party? This he could not tell.

After a few moments' reflection he decided that there remained but one
thing for him to do: to follow this trail.

"All right, old dog," he said, "let's see where this ends, and who's at
the end. Might be an Eskimo hunter who has wandered far on the
ice-floe, for all I know; but he'll end up sometime."

Moment by moment the scent of the trail they followed grew fresher. He
could tell this by the old dog's growing eagerness. At every ice-pile
they rounded, he expected to catch sight of human figures. Would it be
two men or two girls? He could not tell. Not a chance footprint in
soft snow had caught his eye.

When he had fairly given up hope of overtaking them, as he speeded
around a gigantic ice-pile he came at once in sight of those he
followed. So overjoyed was he at sight of human beings that, before
determining their identity, he shouted cheerily:

"Hey, there!"

The figure nearest him wheeled in his track. Then, with the fierce
growl of a beast, he sprang at the boy's throat.

So taken by surprise was Phi that he made no defense. He caught a
vision of a pair of fiery eyes set in a mass of shaggy hair; the next
instant he felt himself crashed to the hard surface of the ice.

The advantage was all with the man. Larger, stronger, older, with the
handicap of the aggressor, he bade fare to finish his work quickly.

The native gui