again
to-morrow night."

"All right. I'm glad you mentioned it. Now we'll see if we can't have an
interesting reception prepared for them."

"Pizen?" queried Jalap Coombs, who had lighted his pipe, and was now
complacently watching the skinning of the dead wolves, which had been
undertaken by the three Indians.

"Worse than that," answered Phil, significantly.

By the time the Indians had finished their task and breakfast had been
eaten the usual starting-hour had arrived. Two of the wolf-skins were
allotted to the guide, who was to leave them at this point, and he set
forth on his return journey with them on his back. Rolled in them were
the single dried salmon, which would form his sole sustenance on the
journey, and the cherished pound of tobacco, for which he had been
willing to work so hard. In his hand he bore an old flintlock musket,
that was the pride of his heart, not so much on account of its shooting
qualities, which were very uncertain, as by reason of its great length.
It was the longest gun known to the dwellers of the Tananah Valley, and
consequently the most valuable, for the Hudson Bay Company's method of
selling such guns was to exchange one for as many marten, fox, or beaver
skins as could be piled from stock to muzzle when it stood upright.

"I hope the wolves won't attack his camps," remarked Phil, as they
watched the lonely figure pass out of sight on the back trail.

"Him no camp," declared Kurilla.

"But he must. Why, it's a four days' journey to his home."

"No. One day, one night. Him no stop. Wolf no catch um. Yaas."

And Kurilla was right, for the Indian would push on over mile after mile
of that frozen solitude without a pause, save for an occasional bite
from his dried salmon and a handful of snow to wash it down, until he
reached his own far-away home.

CHAPTER XX.

CHITSAH'S NATURAL TELEPHONE.

Seventeen green wolf-skins formed a heavy sledge-load, especially for
the weakened dog teams, but fortunately Jalap Coombs's feet were again
in condition for walking, and snow on the river was not yet deep. So it
was determined to carry them at least for the present. On the evening
following that of the encounter with wolves, Phil, leaving the work of
preparing camp to the others, unpacked the Eskimo wolf-traps of
compressed whalebone that he had procured at Makagamoot. He had twenty
of the ingenious little contrivances, and wrapped each one in a strip of
frozen wolf meat that he