in the task of getting him into the boat.

By this time the woman on the bank understood what she was doing,
and ceased shouting. It was Katherine's turn to make a noise now,
and she did it with all her might. "Oily Dave, come out! We've
got a boat at the back, and we will save you if you will be quick."

She was making so much noise herself, and picking her way with such
extreme care over the rotten ice, that she failed to hear the first
response to her calling, and the next pulled her up with a jerk.

"Oily Dave isn't here, but if you will take me I shall be very
thankful."

The voice was a strange one, and had an unmistakable ring of
refinement and culture. Katherine faced round with such a start of
surprise as to nearly send her sprawling again, for the ice was
full of pitfalls. A young man was leaning out through the small
square opening which did duty for a window, and her first
impression of him was of someone extremely tired, and that gave her
the clue to his identity. He must be the Englishman who had come
from Maxokama with the Indians who had brought the mail.

"Open the door and come out that way," she said in a tone of sharp
authority. "You will never be able to squeeze through that small
window unless your shoulders are very narrow indeed."

"Which they are not," he replied, and disappeared from view.

She heard him banging and tugging at the door, but never a jot did
it stir, and after about five minutes of this futile work he
appeared again at the window. The water was nearly on a level with
the opening now, and rising moment by moment, while there were
ominous ripping and rending sounds in Katherine's ice island, which
warned her that the rescue must take place in the next few minutes
if it was to be effected at all.

"The door is jammed. What am I to do?" the unknown asked in a calm
tone, with no flurry or fuss. Indeed, Katherine wondered if he
realized how great was his peril and her own.

"Break it down, smash it, anything; only be quick, please," she
said sharply, marvelling a little at his unconcern in the face of
such grave danger.

Again he disappeared, and Katherine heard a rain of heavy blows
beginning to fall upon the door; then with a cracking, splitting
noise the panel gave way, the man inside wrenched off the broken
part, and stood revealed up to his waist in water. But there was a
space of fully three yards between himself and Katherine's island
of ice, and, as the