uman abandon. Almost
everywhere, when looking upward, the eyes rested against snow-white
hills with their black reaching spars of sparse fir trees; while below
and stretching away for miles--winding and twisting between the
hills--the flat, solidly-frozen Kalamalka Lake, with its fresh, white
coating, caught the sun's rays and threw them back in a defiant and
blinding dazzle. At intervals, in unexpected places and along the
shore line, smoke curled up cheerily from the snug little homes of the
neighbouring ranchers and settlers.

As the two men trudged along, with the old terrier dog at their heels,
the frozen air crackled in their nostrils. They smoked their pipes,
however, and threw out their chests in sheer joy of living, for a
winter's day, such as this was, did not freeze young blood, but rather
sent it sparkling and effervescing like ten-year-old champagne.

They followed the red stains on the snow and finally came to a spot in
a gulley where the coyote evidently had disposed of its steal, for
feathers lay about in gory profusion. They continued through the
thicket, where they lost all track of further blood-stains. To add to
their worries, the old terrier disappeared.

"He must have got scared and beat it for home," said Phil.

"Looks like it! I guess we should follow his lead, for Mister Coyote
seems to have got pretty well away."

"Let us go down toward the lake then and home along the shore line. It
is easier travelling that way."

They went down the incline together, digging with their heels at times
to stop them up, and slipping in fifteen feet lengths at other times.
When they neared the bottom they heard a loud yelp, as of a dog
suddenly hit by a missile of some kind. They looked out in the
direction of the lake and away in the middle of it, half a mile from
shore, their eyes sighted two dark objects rolling over and over each
other.

A yelp, sharper than the first, came again.

"By jingo!" shouted Jim, "what do you know about that? It's our
supposed yellow-livered terrier. He's got the coyote. Come on! The
brute will have him eaten alive."

They plunged down the remainder of the hill, through another thicket
of pines, along the shore and out on to the lake. The ice was several
feet thick and as solid as the land itself. Time and again both Phil
and Jim stepped up in order to try a shot, but it was impossible to
get one in without endangering the life of the plucky old dog.

They slid and scur