his? To
freeze to death merely because he did not have a dry lucifer
match? The wind was still rising and it cut to his very marrow.
Reality and imagination were allied, and Dick was almost
overpowered. He angrily thrust the wet little package of matches
back into the inside pocket of his coat--his border training in
economy had become so strong that even in the moment of despair
he would throw away nothing--and his hand in the pocket came
into contact with something else, small, hard, and polished.
Dick instantly felt a violent revulsion from despair to hope.

The small object was a sunglass. That wagon train was well
equipped. Dick had made salvage of two sunglasses, and in a
moment of forethought had given one to Albert, keeping the other
for himself, each agreeing then and there to carry his always for
the moment of need that might come.

Dick drew out the sunglass and fingered it as one would a diamond
of great size. Then he looked up. A brilliant sun was shining
beyond white, misty clouds, but its rays came through them dim
and weak. The mists or, rather, cloudy vapor might lift or thin,
and in that chance lay the result of his fight for life. While
he waited a little, he stamped up and down violently, and threw
his arms about with energy. It did not have much effect. The
wet, cold, the raw kind that goes through, was in him and, despite
all the power of his will, he shivered almost continually. But he
persisted for a half hour and then became conscious of an increasing
brightness about him. The white mist was not gone, but it was
thinning greatly, and the rays of the sun fell on the snow brilliant
and strong.

Dick took the dry stick again and scraped off particles of wood
so fine that they were almost a power. He did not stop until he
had a little heap more than an inch high. Meanwhile, the sun's
rays, pouring through the whitish mist, continued to grow fuller
and stronger.

Dick carefully polished the glass and held it at the right angle
between the touchwood, that is, the scrapings, and the sun. The
rays passing through the glass increased many times in power and
struck directly upon the touchwood. Dick crouched over the wood
in order to protect it from the wind, and watched, his breath
constricted, while his life waited on the chance.

A minute, two minutes, three minutes, five passed and then a
spark appeared in the touchwood, and following it came a tiny
flame. Dick shouted with j