t upon the trail.

In desperation he ran forward to the side of the team, with the whip
handle clubbed, to compel obedience. Sampson showed his fangs, and
snapped at Charley's legs. This was a signal for open rebellion on the
part of the whole team. They came to a standstill, and faced him,
showing their fangs, and one or two of them sprang at him, but were held
in leash by their traces.

Toby, looking behind, discovered the situation and came running to
Charley's assistance. Taking the whip from Charley he quickly had the
mutinous dogs reduced to sullen submission.

"I'll not be goin' ahead of un again," said Toby. "'Tis not helpin' to
make they go any. The dogs act wonderful queer. They won't follow like
they always has."

Toby urged them forward. They whined and whimpered, and at last some of
them lay down, and Toby was compelled to beat them into action.

It was directly after this that they came to open water. The boys looked
at each other in consternation.

"What'll we do?" asked Charley.

"I'm not knowin'," confessed Toby. "The ice has gone abroad from the
shore, and we're driftin' out to sea."

"Shall we be--lost?" asked Charley in dull terror.

"It may be she's just settled off from shore here," suggested Toby
hopefully. "She may be holdin' fast up the bay above the narrows. We'll
try un whatever."

He commanded the dogs to go on. They sprang to the traces, but turned to
the right. Against their will, and with free use of the whip, he
succeeded in swinging them to the left and up the wind. Reluctantly and
slowly they moved. They seemed aware of their danger. They were
dissatisfied.

At length Tinker, the leader, squat upon his belly. Toby cracked the
whip over him with a command to go on, and he turned upon his back, paws
in air, as though in meek appeal. Toby clipped him with the tip of the
lash, and he sprang up, turning to the right, and Toby lashed him back
into the course to the left. He gave no display of savagery, as did
Sampson, but appeared to be beseeching his young master to do something
his master could not understand.

The cold had grown intense. The wind had become a stiff gale. The air
was filled with a blinding dust of snow, so thick that Tinker, the
leader, could scarcely be seen from the komatik. The wind was in their
face, and Toby and Charley and the dogs struggled against it as against
an unseen wall. The ice was heaving with an under swell. Now the
komatik would be climbing