engeful evil. It pursues. The cold itself becomes
merely a condition; the wind a deadly weapon which uses that condition
to deprive its victim of all defence. The warmth which active exercise
stores up, the buckler of the traveller, is borne away. His reserves
are invaded, depleted, destroyed. And then the wind falls upon him with
its sword. Of all of which we were to have instance here on the Koyukuk.

[Sidenote: "FOUND FROZEN"]

In the second week of our stay at Bettles, while Divine service was in
progress in the store building, crowded with whites and natives, the
door opened and, with an inrush of cold air that condensed the moisture
at that end of the room into a cloud and shot along the floor like steam
from an engine exhaust, there entered an Indian covered with rime, his
whole head-gear one mass of white frost, his snow-shoes, just removed,
under his arm, and a beaded moose-skin wallet over his shoulder. Every
eye was at once turned to him as he beat the frost from his parkee hood
and thrust it back, unwrapped fold after fold of the ice-crusted scarf
from his face, and pulled off his mittens. Seeking out the agent, he
moved over to him and whispered something in his ear. It was plain that
the errand was of moment and the message disturbing, and as I had lost
the attention of the congregation and the continuity of my own
discourse, I drew things to a close as quickly as I decently could. That
Indian had come seventy-five miles on snow-shoes in one run, without
stopping at all save to eat two or three times, at a continuous
temperature of 50 deg. below zero or lower, to bring word that he had found
a white man frozen to death on the trail; and on the Koyukuk that feat
will always be counted to Albert the Pilot for righteousness. From the
location and description of the dead man, there was no difficulty in
identifying him. He was a wood-chopper under contract with the company
to cut one hundred cords of steamboat wood against next summer's
navigation at a spot about one hundred miles below Bettles. He had taken
down with him on the "last water" enough grub for about three months,
and was to return to Bettles for Christmas and for fresh supplies. After
a day or two's rest the Indian was sent back with instructions to bring
the body to a native village we should visit, to whipsaw lumber for a
coffin and dig a grave, and we engaged to give the body Christian
burial.

Uneasy at the softening muscles and sinews of th