heave
un out."

"Don't the trout fight after you hook them?" asked Charley. "I always
heard they fought to get away, and you had to play them and tire them
out before you landed them."

"They never fights in winter, and your fishin' pole is strong enough so
she won't be hurt any by heavin' they out soon as you hooks un," grinned
Toby. "'Tis too cold to play with un any. Just heave un up on the ice.
They don't feel much like sportin' about this weather."

Charley had scarcely dropped his line into the water, when Violet gave a
little scream of delight, and cried:

"I gets one! I gets the first un!" and with a mighty yank she flung a
three-pound trout clear of the hole.

A few minutes later Charley, no less excited and thrilled, landed one
that was even larger than the one Violet had caught, and at the end of
half an hour the three had caught forty big fellows, some of which,
Charley declared, were "as big as shad."

It was stinging cold, and even with the up and down movement of the line
it was often caught fast in the newly forming ice. At intervals of a few
minutes it was necessary to use the ax to reopen the holes, and the
lines themselves were thickly encrusted by ice.

"'Tis wonderful cold standin' on the ice," said Violet at length. "I has
to go in to get warm."

"We're gettin' all the trout we can use for a bit," suggested Toby. "If
you wants to go in, Charley, I'll be goin' too."

"I'm ready to quit," Charley admitted. "It's mighty cold standing in one
place so long."

"Wait a bit," said Toby. "I'll be gettin' a box to put the trout in, and
the old komatik to haul un up to the house. Wait and help me."

Charley busied himself throwing the fish from the three piles into one,
while Toby followed Violet to the house, and when he had finished looked
out over the bay. Far down the bay he saw something moving over the ice,
and in a moment recognized it as an approaching dog team.

"Somebody's coming!" he shouted to Toby. "There's a team of dogs coming
up the bay!"

"Who, now, might that be?" puzzled Toby, who ran down to Charley.

"They must be coming here, for we're the last place up the bay,"
reasoned Charley.

"They's sure comin' here!" said Toby. "I'm thinkin' now she may be a
team from the French Post in Eskimo Bay, up south. They comes down north
every year about this time to buy fur, though they never comes here
before."

"Maybe they heard about your silver fox," suggested Charley, "and
the