Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1907-10-24
THE WAY
OF THE NORTH !
By Anna Lyons.
W Anna Lyons.


up hts dogs and seeing that he had
enough blankets and provisions on
the sledge, let himself out through
q side gate In the stockade, and with
gutteral "mush on" started his
dogs bounding out over the trail.
He was making his usual visit 10
the traps that he had set a few days
previous. Il was good days Jour
neg 10 their goal and he pulled the
dogs into a steady lopc that carried
them swiftly over the frozen snow.
On and on they went through the
silence. lie travelled as fast as his
dogs could 90, until, Just as night
was closing In, they reached a cabin
that he had built near the head Of
the line OF traps.
After fastening the team. be ate
some supper and then curled up 10
his blankets and slept. The next
morning he was up and away 20 the
80 early. Chuckling with salts
faction. he passed from one trap 70
another. for nearly all contained It's
victim. dead and frozen.
When lie had started there was
hsr.ly as much as breath of wind
70 aisturb the solitude, but before
he leIched the last trap It suddenly
se 80 TO snow, and by the time he
hi everything well packed and had
started back over the trail Il was
showing bard.
Brehouf swore softly to himself as
he went along, for he was new TO
this territory and depended largely on
his knowledge OF the trail to enable
him TO regain the post For many
hours he fastened on through the
storm, which after time changed to
light fall, so that he was able to
see distance round about, and he
looked eagerly for some familiar
points IN the landscape.
But it seemed all new; this great
barren range was strangely unfam-
liar. Thinking that he might have
got little off the trail, he turned
more and more TO the south. And as
he went along he strained his eyes for
glimpse OF some remembered OBJ
feet, but In vain.
Everywhere stretched the same
interminable line of white, broken
in few places by patches of forest
or small hills, Then a great fear
swept through him and clutched his
heart, a thought that obscured his
very mind and vision. He pulled
up his dogs and tried to focus his
mind on what was before him.
lie gazed, as II fascinated at the
great snowy waste, undulating on
and on into the distance, that SEEM
ed TO hold in its motionless bosom
the very spirit Of silence and death.
Everywhere the whiteness, always
the silence, that oppressed like
weight. II had stopped showing
now, but the strange, tense atmos-
phere filled him with fear and
vague alarm.
He shook himself as though to
throw off this feeling that seemed to
be crushing him, and with a wild
cry started on again, turning more
and more to the south as he thought,
but in reality he was swinging
around, so that his course described
huge circle that would soon point
almost due north.
And then suddenly 1t grew colder,
fierce northeast wind came driv-
Ing along, biting and singing into
his face, and his hands grew so
numb that he had to stop the sledge
and pound his fingers until he got
the blood circulating again.
Then, with a little renewed vigor,
he was off once more on his despair
ing journey He cursed and dashed
the dogs until the blood ooZed
through their fur. On and Oh they
went, but 1t was always the same
And slowly the conviction was fore
ed upon him that he was hopelessly
lost
once he stumbled and fell, and the
dogs who were nearly finished stop
ped as he went down. He had a
hard time to get on his feet, and
when this was accomplished he lean.
ed against the sledge, exhausted
The cold was frightful and soon his
body became almost numb. and NUT
tering and raying he stamped about
trying TO keep the life In his freez
ing limbs.
Then once more came the snow
slowly at first as II fegretfully, but
with it's usual quickness, changing
into driving, bowling storm. II
his blind rage he had wandered far
Their and farther away from his team
and when he turned TO look for 1t
Il was nowhere TO be seen.
He managed to struggle TO hi
feet; the wind upset him; once mor'
he arose. and once more he wa
thrown. This time he did not rise
but lay quite still. while the yoic'
| OF the storm whistled and moaneC
around him, first sinking TO a loy
dronIng sound, then rising 10 a CT.
OF wild rejoicing. II was his re
| QUEEN. With relentless sway
| swept down. and the snow. driftinl
| and eddying, soon covered mis- mo
| tionless form.
Hour after hour 1t came dow
steadily, but with the dawn of an
| other day It stopped as suddenly a
| II had begun. And as the sun peep
| ed out from the east, its glance fel
on a vast, unbroken plain of white
| for of the last resting place of Bre
| bout and his dogs there was no sign
I