Part 18 (2/2)
CHAPTER XII
”WHAT IS THAT?”
When the one, Phi sat down upon an up-ended ice-cake to rest and think His logical course was evident enough; to wait for perhaps half an hour, allowing the et a sufficient distance ahead to prevent any further unpleasant encounters Still, he was glad now to have his rifle, ses for it, as they were an added weight These had been spilled froent search he was able to find five He was about to abandon the search when, with an excla, picked up an envelope
”The blue envelope,” he exclaiirls told me about It was lucky he tried to assassinate me after all”
The envelope had been torn open, but the letter, though blurred with griers he pulled it out
”Couldn't read our cipher, so he was going to Noot to say is, it's lucky he lost it and I found it”
He read the ht of hope shone in his eye
”If only I can make it back to the Aet back on your job We're going to the islands”
Hopefully he hurried forward But they had tarried too long, for, not a hundred rods fro point, they came upon a broad, dark break in the floe, such a break as no draw-bridge of ice would ever span
”And, like the other, it's endless,” Phi groaned as his eye swept the line froain; then he sat down to think
A half hour before this Lucile had said to Marian: ”Listen, I think I hear a dog bark”
They listened and the bark came to them very distinctly
”Is it Rover, or does it come from the island?” asked Lucile
”I can't tell,” whispered Marian
For some time they listened When at last they prepared to resuain Then a cry of consternation escaped her lips; the fog had thickened; the stars were lost to theain adrift on the trackless floe without couide
At thein sight of that same break in the floe, on the side of which he sat
They were not a mile apart, but the distance had as well been a hundred miles as, in this labyrinth of ice-floes, no person finds another, and, as it turned out later, Phi took the trail to the left and they the one to the right
Why the two girls chose to travel to the right along the break, they could not have told, nor why they traveled at all, unless because motion quieted their nerves and served to allay their fears Perhaps there was so theantic ice-pile when suddenly she gripped Marian's arm
”What's this?” she exclaimed
A brown object lay some distance ahead of theht be a white bear or walrus
Suddenly Marian threw up her head and laughed ”It's only a kiak
Some Eskimo has left it on the ice and the floe has carried it away”