The Snowflake herald., 1918-05-17

bowling of the wind as it hurled itself
down from the divide. But from day
light till dark Colby Macdonald fought
with drifts and breasted the storm. He
got into the harness with the dogs. He
broke trail for them, cheered them,
soothed, comforted, punished. Long
after night had fallen he staggered into
the hut of two prospectOrs, his parka
so stiff with frozen snow that it had
to be beaten with hammer before the
coat could be removed.
"How long since a dog team passed
seven huskies and two men?" was
his first question.
"No dog team has passed for four
days." one of the men answered.
"You mean you haven't seen one"
Macdonald corrected.
81 mean none has passed-unless it
went by In the night while we slept.
And even then our dogs would have
warned u.s."
Macdonald flung his iCe-coated gloves
to table and stopped to take off his
mukluks. His face was blue with the
came from within. He said nothing
more until he was free of his wet
clothes. Then he sat down heavily and
passed a hand over his frozen eye
broWs.
sect me something to eat and take
care Of my dogs. There is food for
them on the Sled," he said.
While he ate he told them of the
bank robbery and the murder. Their
resentment against the men who had
done it was quite genuine There
could be no doubt they told the truth
when they said no sled had preceded
his. They were honest, reliable pros
pectors. He knew them both well.
The weary man slept like a log. He
opened his eyes next morning to find
one of his hosts shaking him.
"Six o'clock, Mr.. Macdonald Your
breakfast is ready. Jim is looking out
for the huskies."
Half an hour later the Scotsman
gave the order, "Mush - He was off
again, this time on the back trail as
far as the Narrows, from which point
he meant to strike across to intersect
the fork of the road leading to the di-
vide.
The storm had passed and when the
late sun rose it was in blue sky. Fine
| enough the day was overhead, but the
slushy snow, where it was worn thin
on the river by the sweep of the wind,
made heavy travel for the dogs. Mac
donald was glad enough to reach the
NarrOWs, where he could turn from the
river and cut across to hit the trail of
the men he was following. He had
about five miles to go before he would
reach the Smith Crossing road and
every foot of it he would nave to
break trail for the dogs. This was slow
business, since he had no partner at
the gee-pole. Back and forth, back
and forth he trudged, beating down the
loose snow for the runners. It was a
hill trail, and the drifts were in most
places not very deep. But the Scots
man was doing the work of two, and
at killing pace.
Over a ridge the team plunged down
into little park where the snow was
deeper. Macdonald, breaking trail
across the mountain valley, found his
feet weighted with packed ice slush so
that he could hardly move them. When
at last he had beaten down q path for
his dogs he stood breathing deep at the
summit of the slope. Before them lay
the main road to Smiths Crossing,
scarce fifty yards away. He gave q
deep whoop of triumph, for along 1t
ran the wavering tracks left by a sled.
He was on the heels of his enemy at
last.
AS he turned back to his Siberian
hounds, the eyes of Macdonald came
to abrupt attention. On the hillside,
not ten yards from him, something
stuck out of the snow like signpost.
1t was the foot of a man.
Slowly Macdonald moved toward it.
He knew well enough what he had
stumbled acrOss-one Of the tragedies
that in the North are likely to be found
in the wake Of every widespread bliz-
zard. Some unfortunate traveller, blind
ed by the white swirl, had wandered
from the trail and had staggered up
draw to his death
With a little digging the Alaskan
uncovered q leg. The man had died
where he had fallen, face down. Mac
donald scooped away the snow and
found pack strapped to the back of
the buried man. He cut the thongs
and tried to ease 1t away. But the
gunnysack had frozen to the parka.
When he pulled, the rotten sacking
gave way under the strain. The con-
tents of the pack spilled out.
The eyes in the grim face of Mac
donald grew hard and steely. He had
found, by some strange freak of
chance, much more than he had ex-
pected to find. Using his snowshoe as
q shovel, he dug the body free and
turned 1t over. At sight of the face he
gave q cry Of astonishment.