Part 18 (1/2)

Calling to his dog, he leaped upon the slippery surface An ever-widening river of water flohere the cake had split With one wild bound, he cleared it The dog followed In another moment they were safe on the other side

”That's well over with,” the boy sighed, patting the old dog on the head ”Now the question is, how can we find our friends?”

That, indeed, was a probleround

The ice had been shi+fting To pick up their back trail seemed impossible An hour's search convinced him that it could not be done

He sat down in a brown study He could not go away and leave these girls to drift north and perish, yet further search seean to bark in the distance

Following the sound, he ca But as the boy approached, the dog shot away over the ice

”A trail!” heon

The ice was hard and smooth A soft skin ”muckluck” would leave no mark Even the hard toes of a white bear would not scratch it

When the boy had followed for a half-hour, he thought of these things, and paused to consider What if he were following thewhite bear? And if it happened to be a trail of a huirls, or of the beardedStudying his compass then, he walked forward slowly

Fifteen minutes of this told him that this was no white bear's trail

It went too straight ahead for that Neither could it be his own trail, for he would have co more was certain: The person or persons who made this trail were headed due south by east They would, if they did not change their course, in time reach the vicinity of the Diouide and his party? This he could not tell

After a few mo for hi,” he said, ”let's see where this ends, and who's at the end Might be an Eskimo hunter who has wandered far on the ice-floe, for all I know; but he'll end up sometime”

Morew fresher He could tell this by the old dog's growing eagerness At every ice-pile they rounded, he expected to catch sight of huirls? He could not tell Not a chance footprint in soft snow had caught his eye

When he had fairly given up hope of overtaking theantic ice-pile he caht of those he followed So overjoyed was he at sight of hu their identity, he shouted cheerily:

”Hey, there!”

The figure nearest hirowl of a beast, he sprang at the boy's throat

So taken by surprise was Phi that he ht a vision of a pair of fiery eyes set in a y hair; the next instant he felt himself crashed to the hard surface of the ice

The advantage was all with the ressor, he bade fare to finish his work quickly

The native guide had passed beyond the next ice-pile Rover had followed

But the boy's college days had not been for naught; he knew a trick or two As if stunned by the fall, he relaxed and laythis, the man took ti his horny hands toward his throat

The next instant, as if thrown by a springboard, the ht of escape Turning, he dashed around an ice-pile, then another and another But fate was not with him Just at the moment when he felt that he could elude his pursuer, his foot struck a crevice in the ice, and he went sprawling

Again the wild terror was upon hi over the ice a neild terror, and this one his friend Old Rover, silent and deter clean at theout with hands and feet, and roaring foroff ”Get!” he said The man looked surly, but one look at the deter away

”You're sohed at the old leader ”Well, now, I'll say you are!”