The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1908-08-20

tion Of cold meat and biscuit was
passed round, John said he wasn't
hungry-we should eat his share. We
rebelled.
See here, John Miller,' we de-
clared "you must eat your rations.
You are getting weaker and weaker
and what would we do without your"
He laughed and nibbled a bit, and
passed the remainder over to US.
Nov, boys" he said, with smile
which gave us hope, @I'll make con-
fession I'm having my last struggle
with this Congo fever. / must starye
1t out-starve It out. you know. But
I'll win. And when the reindeer
come-this storm viii bring them
and the fat, juicy steaks are going
round, why, just count me in"
This cheered us all. Curious. the
faith we had in that man. We
wouldn't believe our own eyes; we
believed him instead. We saw that
he was wasting away; his blood was
running thin as water; the-color was
gone from his face; his eyes were the
brightest things to be seen in the
gloom of the tent. But he said he
was going to be all right, and that
was enough for us. We did not doubt
It.
More and more violent became the
gale. 1t was an arctic blizzard. The
snow blew all through our tent, and
we lay shiyerlng in our blankets.
Three days and nights the storm con-
tinued. We couldn't sleep much.
Every hour or two the tent threat
ened to go to pieces, and it was John
who always rushed to fix it or place
another rock on its frozen edges. We
simply couldn't make him keep stal.
He was in and out, looking for the
storm to break and the reindeer to
come, he said. He cracked his jokes
and told us stories, and made each
one of us ashamed to admit his dis
couragement even to himself
At last the wind died away. The
snow stopped blowing through the
tent. The sky. cleared, and a calm,
intense cold set in. oh, how cold It
was! We couldn't sleep, and after an
hour or two Of shivering we got up,
shaking the thick white mantle from
our blankets and pounding our be-
numbed limbs. John was not there.
His blanket was nearly buried in
snow; he must have been gone somo
time.
Just then we heard a shout. It
came up from the shore. The voice
was Johns.
Reindeer! Reindeerir he cried. :
We three grabbed our guns and ran
out. There were reindeer, sure
enough score or more--running
straight toward us; and behind them
was John, waving his arms and shout
ing, driving the herd against our
rifles.
In few moments seven deer were
lying dead in the snow. The others
had run away, but we were going
after them as soon as we could swaI-
low some warm breakfast. It did not
take us, long to get the cooking lamp |
lighted and some nice venison cuts
into the pot John tried to help us
dress the deer and prepare the break
fast but he was so weak he could |
hardly stand, and his face was as
white as the snow on the ground. SO
we took him in and wrapped him up
in the blankets.
Just as the SAVIOR OF boiling meat |
was waited through the tent, one Of
our comrades rushed in.
"A shipl A ship!" he cried II
see schooner headed this wayl"
Our ship was coming at last The
and the ship ogether-both
Of Johns predictions verified We
turned to look at our comrade. He
was laughing softly. His eyes were
like two Goals Of fire, and there were
tears in them, He clapped his thin
hands together without making any
sound; the muscles were too weak.
There was look of peace and tri.
umph in his face.
We were too happy to worry much
about our comrade just then. There
was the ship to talk over, the break
fast to make ready. No further need
Of economy, of scant ratlons. Ont
with the coffee, the sugar, the dried
lruit-eyerything that was good. We
should have feast TO celebrate our
John must eat, too
brave, splendid joint
A strange sound from our leaders
'orner caused us to stop our chatter
ind turn and look at him again. He
like one who was freezing.
We could see HIS hands clutch
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