Part 19 (1/2)

It was four miles, he knew, to a rocky headland over yonder, if he ventured out on that uncertain field of ice That would save several shore

As far as he could see, the ice looked as though it would hold up the sled It was rough--but a hardened voyager with a dog-team is accustomed to a hummocky road It looked as if the sea had torn it up, asblocks in a city street, and then thrown the bits together to s could surely trust The strong wind seeht, he supposed, had frozen it solid

The wind died down, and Grenfell found that he was deep in what is known as ”sish”--soft ice as mushy as the name sounds He compares it to oatmeal, and itof new ice on top of it, through which the whip-handle easily pierced

The ”sish” ice is co between thebreeze no froether it was driving it apart The packed ”slob” was ”running abroad,” as the fisher-folk say

The ice-pans were so se as a table-top

By this time the team had come to a halt on one of these tiny pans, and with the other pans floating about as the entire sheet was breaking up the peril was evident It was not possible to go back--the as cut off by the widening spaces between the pans Only about a quarter of a mile was left between their pan and the shore

Grenfell threw off his oilskins, knelt by the side of the kos to reat deal to ”rattle” a husky But the dogs, after about twenty yards of half-wading, half-swihtened They stopped, and the sled sank into the ice With the sled in the freezing water, it was necessary for the dogs to pull hard, and now they too began to sink

Not long before, the father of the boy to who's traces in just such a place as this To avoid that danger, Grenfell got out his knife, and cut the traces in the water

But he still kept hold of the leader's trace, which he wound about his wrist

In the water there was not a piece of ice to be seen in which dogs or driver could put their trust The dogs were as eager as theirto Care-free and jolly as they had been hitherto, they kneell as he that death by drowning stared their little caravan in the face

About twenty-five yards away there was a big lump of snow, such as children put up when they , ”Brin,” as he ed abouttrace of about sixty feet ”Brin” had black hing all the tiood joke When he clambered out on the huazed cal atabout

Grenfell hauled hi toward ”Brin” by means of the trace still attached to his wrist But suddenly ”Brin” stepped out of his harness, and then the Doctor found hi in the water, with noto the place where ”Brin” had found teht this time it was all over He had looked Death in the eyes before, but Death had decided to go by This tireat alarht how easy it would be just to fall asleep and forget everything, as the icy water chilled and numbed his senses

He was like the weary traveler who drops into the snow-bank, on whorees

Suddenly Grenfell caught sight of a big dog that had gone through the ice and was pulling the trace after him, in a desperate effort to reach the hurabbed the trace, and hauled hi as a bow anchor”

But the other dogs were following this poor beast's example, and they crowded and jostled the Doctor so that it was hard for hiot on his shoulder, veryman in his desperation will throw his ar him under This pushed Grenfell still deeper into the ice, and it was a question whether his energy would hold out in that frigid water

As they say on the football field, he now had only three yards to gain, and by aanchor and climbed up on the piece of slob ice He rested a s one after another up to a place beside hih the lane in the ice that he had broken, and see to save theh they had lost their heads and had almost drowned him

It would not do for theht break in two at any s and driver It was slowly drifting with the tidal current out to the open sea, where all hope would be lost Grenfell knew that if he were to save his teahts--he must act instantly

He stood up to survey the scene About twenty yards away there was a good-sized pan floating about in the ”sish” like a raft, such as that on which Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer floated down the Mississippi To reach that raft would at any rate be to postpone death for a little while But it was taking tooone without a life line Hoas he to et it across the wide space between?

Fortunately when the Doctor cut the dogs away from the sled he had not lost his knife: he had tied it to the back of one of the dogs There it was still It was the work of a joyful s' harness the sealskin traces that re lines His overalls, coat, hat and gloves were gone, but he still had his sealskin hip-boots He took these off, shook them free from ice and water, and tied the Then he fastened the lines to the two ani the near ends round his wrists