guide him, a traveler through the snow-bound
wilderness could reach the settlement easily and quickly. But Hager
didn't intend to do that. He now had time to kill. He chuckled darkly
over the accuracy of the phrase.

Plodding toward the pass, he deliberately slowed his steps. He no
longer used the whip or shouted at the dogs for greater speed. The
animals were grateful for the respite. They slackened their pace,
tongues lolling and bushy tails waving as they bobbed in their plowed
path through the white drifts.

Cahill dozed on. Once or twice he moved restlessly amid the furs piled
about him. It was as though some deep, vague instinct warned him that
something was wrong.

Hager watched the other sharply for a time, then desisted to give his
attention to maneuvering the sled through the pass. The forest
appeared, the trees wraith-like under their thick, white mantles of
snow. Hager didn't follow the dip in the land that led toward the
frozen stream. He guided the dogs in the opposite direction and began
watching Cahill again. He hoped that the man would not awake until
less familiar territory surrounded them.

Cahill didn't awake. He dozed and tossed, his lips moving occasionally
in a soundless mutter. His gaunt, leathery face was pale under its
growth of grizzled whiskers.

The snow-covered land rose, became rocky and difficult. The dogs began
laboring with increasing weariness in their efforts to keep pulling
the heavy sled. Hager realized he couldn't go in this direction much
longer. When a ravine suddenly presented itself, relatively free of
snow, he decided to call a halt.

* * * * *

Unfastening the dogs, he left the ravine and began searching through
the snow for brushwood. It took time, but Hager was in no hurry. He
gathered an armful and finally returned to the sled.

Cahill was awake. He had propped himself feebly among the furs, his
gaunt face blank and drab with sickness. His filmed blue eyes fastened
on Hager.

"Water," he whispered. "Water, Matt."

"Coming up," Hager said. "Just you wait a minute, Ben, and you'll get
all the water you want."

Cahill fell back among the furs, and Hager leisurely shaved kindling
and stacked the wood and then set it ablaze. The ravine was shielded
from the wind, and the wood ignited without difficulty. At last Hager
went to the sled and removed the small pack he had fortunately thought
to bring along. His experience with the wilde