Part 31 (1/2)

”Yes, I do,” said Grenfell ”But you're the driver, and I leave it to you We et off as soon as we can”

Dr Grenfell went to his room to snatch a catnap before the start

Another telegra soon Wife worse”

The storrey day came The sun was not seen at all On the contrary, the air was filled with aflakes alood in the teeth of such a storm--for the team-mates ith a will are those that are best acquainted, and with an unknown driver this teaether would have pulled as s They would be at each other's throats before they were out of sight of the houses

As he waited, walking restlessly up and down, in his broeater and thick leggins, Grenfell was plagued with the picture of the wo for her life till help should coive it

Still another of those telegrae read: ”Co out”

Just as he read the words, there were voices, and battering hands at the door

Two ered into the rooer that they escaped its clutches

Grenfell, accustoasped when he saw them

”Where did you come from?”

”We comes to fetch you, sir, for the sick woet me there now?” the Doctor asked, anxiously

”No, sir We was blown here most o' the i' the wind at our backs The wind drove us The dogs can't ainst it, not till the wind shi+fts clean round the other way, sir”

Ten miles of their journey had been in the fairly sheltered lee of the land Twenty miles had been before the pitiless sweep of the wind over the unprotected sea-ice If the snow had not drifted so heavily, they would have been borne along at a pace so rapid that their sled would have been wrecked

”When was it you left Cape Norht o'clock last night, sir”

So they had been coht, without rest or food Yet the first thing they had done when the sled stopped at last before Grenfell's door was to get sos to eat

Already, the ani and tranquil in a drift, as if it were a feather-bed--sleeping the sleep of good dogs who have done their work and earned their daily fish-heads and know of nothing more to want in this life or the next

The Doctor patted the broad shoulders of the gaunt, shy spokes, hot dinner,” he said ”Then go to bed We'll wake you when it's time to start”

But after dark--and the darkness came on very early--the two troubled ain ”Us couldn't sleep, sir, for thinkin' of the woram sayin' please to hurry The storm is not so bad as it was, sir If you think fitten to start, we're ready”

”Call Walter,” said the Doctor

”Us has called he, sir He's gettin' the dogs He'll be here in a minute”

Grenfell and his comrades knew that the lull in the storth, and ain with redoubled fury But he--and they--couldn't stand waiting any longer They o It was as if out of the black distances they heard the thin, far, pleading voice of the sufferer calling to theet across the harbor of St Anthony in the dark and the eddying snow They had their snowshoes, but in spite of these they sank to their knees in slush, and the two dog-teams floundered and half-swae the others A man stued in advance of the rear tea an assort-driver knohat thatthe flank of the hill across the harbor, they found the down froht their way foot by foot up the hill They had to take hold of the sleds and lift thes, and the sweat rolled off them in spite of the keen bite of the cold When they topped the rise at last, the wind struck them full force, so that their loudest shouts could not be heard in the roaring onrush of the wind The slope was a steep glaze of ice, and down it they coasted, running into tree-trunks and rocks that threatened to wrench the sleds and injure the dogs and men It was hardly better when they reached the bottom Here the Bartlett River became their necessary roadway, and twice Grenfell and others broke through into the swirling current and were almost carried away to be drowned under the ice

[Illustration: WHERE FOUR FEET ARE BETTER THAN TWO]