cabin and the strange white signal which the
girls had set fluttering there before they went to sleep.

Sliding a native skin-kiak down from the deck, he launched it, then
leaping into the narrow seat, began paddling rapidly toward land.

Having beached his kiak, he hurried toward the cabin. His hand was on
the latch, when he chanced to glance up at the white emblem of distress
which floated over his head.

His hand dropped to his side; his mouth flew open. An expression of
amazement spread over his face.

"Jumpin' Jupiter!" he muttered beneath his breath.

He beat a hasty retreat. Once in his kiak he made double time back to
the wreck.

Marian was the first to awaken in the cabin. By the dull light that
shone through the cracks, she could tell that it was growing dark.

Springing from her bunk, she put her hand to the latch. Hardly had she
done this than the door flew open with a force that threw her back
against the opposite wall. Fine particles of snow cut her face. The
wind set every loose thing in the cabin bobbing and fluttering. The
skirt they had attached to a stout pole as a signal was booming
overhead like a gun.

"Wow! A blizzard!" she groaned.

Seizing the door, she attempted to close it.

Twice the violence of the storm threw her back.

When at last her efforts had been rewarded with success, she turned to
rouse her companion.

"Lucile! Lucile! Wake up? A blizzard!"

Lucile turned over and groaned. Then she opened her eyes.

"Wha--wha--" she droned sleepily.

"A blizzard! A blizzard from the north!"

Lucile sat up quickly.

"From the north!" she exclaimed, fully awake in an instant. "The ice?"

"Perhaps."

"And if it comes?"

"We're stuck, that's all, in Siberia for nine months. Won't dare try
to cross the Straits on the ice. No white man has ever done it, let
alone a woman. Well," she smiled, "we've got food for five days, and
five days is a long time. We'd better try to bring in some wood, and
get the dogs in here; they'd freeze out there."

CHAPTER VI

THE DREAD WHITE LINE

Three days the blizzard raged about the cabin where Lucile and Marian
had found shelter. Such a storm at this season of the year had not
been known on the Arctic for more than twenty years.

For three days the girls shivered by the galley range, husbanding their
little supply of food, and hoping for something to turn up when the
storm was over. Just what that something might