ow, then went racing down its length.

"One," he exclaimed, fairly beside himself, "two, three, four." Each
time he named the count he had drawn a bird from the meshes. At last
he was to the end and sank down exhausted. The dog was at his side.

"Rover, old top," he murmured, "four of em; four beauties! We eat, old
top! We eat!"

The dog's eyes rolled hungrily, but he did not offer to touch the birds.

With eager, trembling fingers the boy tore the feathers from two of the
birds, then tossed to the dog the wings, legs and back, reserving for
himself the dark, rich meat of the breasts, a food fit for a king's
table. He cut this off in thin strips and spread it upon a hard-packed
bank of snow. The thermometer must stand at ten below. The thin
strips would soon be frozen solid. They would then be almost as
palatable as if they had been cooked.

With a meal in sight, he found his mind becoming more composed. His
thoughts wandered back to the question of the nature of the land he had
discovered.

Little knowing what lay just before him, he munched the frozen strips
of flesh; then, strengthened and enheartened, he began making plans for
a night on the newly discovered land.

A freezing wind swept across the plateau. He must find shelter from
this if he was to secure the sleep his tired form demanded. After a
search, he found a rocky crevice which, by the aid of some squares of
snow cut from a near-by bank, he converted into a three-sided house,
with the open side away from the wind. From the sheltered sides of the
great rocks that lay tumbled about here and there, he gathered moss by
the armful and carrying it to his house, made a thick soft bed for
himself and the dog.

His next thought was of a fire. He had no desire to eat more raw meat,
besides he was not unmindful of the cheering influence of even a tiny
blaze. The ground was everywhere over-run with creeping willows.
These he clipped off with his hunting knife and tied in bundles. Some
were dry and dead. These he kept in a separate bundle. When he had an
armload, he carried them to a spot near the door of the house.

He had no matches, but this did not trouble him. Cutting off a foot of
a pole used with the net, he split it in two pieces. One of these
halves he split again and from these smaller pieces he formed the bow
and drill of an Eskimo bow-drill. With a tough creeping willow runner
for a string to his bow, with dry moss for tinder,