Part 21 (2/2)

A LONESOME ISLAND

After fleeing froirls crouched behind the ice pile with bated breath Expecting at any antic beast thrust around the corner of the ice pile, they longed to flee, yet, not daring, re there

”Do you think he saw us?” Marian whispered

”No He was snuffing around looking for so to eat”

Marian shi+vered

Lucile worked her way about the ice-pile to a point where she could see through a crack between cakes, then she ether they watched the antics of the clue!” whispered Marian

For a tiasoline cans about At last, seearbage pile Presently a huge rat ran out and went scurrying away There followed a lively chase which ended in a prolonged squeal

”He got him!” Marian shi+vered

The bear had moved out of their view Cautiously, they turned and made their way from ice-pile to ice-pile, froet our scent and follow us,” said Lucile ”They don't usually bother people h”

In spite of her belief that the bear would not harht ”You can never tell what a hungry bearover and over to herself

At last, late in the night, she fell asleep and slept soundly untilthat so see short of intuition which gave her this suggestion They had been riding on the surface of a gigantic ice-floe It was, perhaps, twentyThere was no sense of ine oneself to be upon land; yet, as she crept quickly out of her sleeping-bag, she saw at once that the ht she read the reason A narrow stretch of rocky shore there cast back the first rays of thesun

”Marian! Marian!” she called excitedly ”Land! Land! An island!”

There could be no questioning this great good fortune The one re problem was to reach the shore of that island They did not dare to abandon their kiak, sleeping-bag, and scanty supplies, for who could tell them that this was not a small uninhabited island? They had traveled many miles with the ice-floe in some direction, perhaps many directions Who could say where they were now?

”The iceclose to shore,” said Lucile, ”but we must try it It's our only chance”

After a hasty breakfast of tea and a last re bit of cold duck, they piled all their supplies and equip farewell to the huan dragging the kiak toward the island

This proved a long and tedious task, requiring all the skill and strength they possessed, for the island, though scarcely four th, had appeared to be her and more uneven as they advanced When they neared the shore, they found thee cake a hundred feet across and eight feet thick glided without a sound, up--up, into mid-air, at last to crumble and fall; and here a mass of small cakes were thrown into convulsions

Pick their way as they er of being crushed by overhanging ice-pans, or of being plunged into a dark pool of water

When, at length, in triued their kiak to a rocky shelf well above the tre ice, Marian, from sheer exhaustion, threw herself flat upon the rock and lay there motionless for soht

At last Marian sat up ”Well, we're here,” she s her blistered hands a woeful look

”Yes,” smiled Lucile, ”we're here Nohere is 'here' and what's it like?”