Part 23 (2/2)

His right foot lifted, his left stiffened, his body shot forward

The nextcrash--the ice-pan had broken in a thousand pieces But the boy and the dog, saved by a timely leap, lay prone upon the surface of the rocky cliff

For soe motionless

This last suprey A mass below, he lay as one whose ears are closed forever to sound

The dog, with ears dropping, eyes intent, lay watching hiently to and fro--there had been a flutter ofcrawled forward to lick the glove that covered that hand with his rough tongue At that the boy raised hi his eyes, stared about him

”Rover, old boy,” he drawled at last, ”that hat you ed his tail

”Rover,” the boy said sole chance for you just then Why did I do it? If you'd been the leader of e overtook you; if you'd maybe pulled me out of some blizzard where I'd have frozen to death if it hadn't been for your keen sense of smell, which enabled you to follow the trail, there'd have been some sense to it But you weren't and you didn't; you're only a poor, old, heroic specie Well, that's enough of that; we're on land now What land is it? What are the people like? When do we eat?

That last question isthe cliff and then look about a bit?”

The dog barked his approval Together they began scaling the cliff, which at times appeared to confront theently rising slope of shale and rock

When Lucile and Marian had made sure that there were no people in the deserted native village, they returned to the et in there,” said Marian, ”don'tabout, she found a stout pole With this she pried off a board from a , then another and another

”Give round

Once boosted up she found that the as not locked The sash went up with a surprising bang, and the next instant she was inside and assisting Lucile to enter

The place had a hollow sound ”Like an old, empty church,” said Marian

Lucile scratched a e room which was absolutely e rooms, which were much smaller, revealed the sa her brows in deep thought, ”do you think of that?”

”Anyway, it's dry, and not too cold,” said Marian

”But it's e in our things; I'll be back”

She bounded out of theand hurried away toward the native village, which lay silent in thetheir sleeping-bag and other belongings through theand was there waiting when Lucile called from outside:

”Here, take this!”

”How heavy!” exclai the second object, ”How cold!”

”The first,” said Lucile, ”is a flat, native seal-oil lamp We can burn our seal-oil in it I have a handful ofthe side for wick It'll make it more cheery and it'll seem warmer The other,” she went on, ”is a frozen whitefish; found it on one of the caches Guess the natives won't miss it if they come back”