The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1927-09-09
Copyright by The Penn Publishing Co.
WNU Service
CHAPTER VIII-Continued

iue frozen tundra. WIN nlSnC the
FROST stiffened, and the needle-pointed
barrage of snow crystals stung the
faces of men and dogs like the lash of
myriad whips. Heads down TO avoid
from the thrust of the wind, until the
half-breed, Strengthening again, felt
the bleat of the blizzard on his right
cheek, and changed their course.
Often, unable to face the burst of
edged torment on their noses, the
dogs lay down, backs to the drive, re-
fusing to move. Then, Garth and
Etienne, lifting them to their feet,
dragged the team and sled until the
huskies again leaned into their col
lars. Blindly into the murk walling
them In plunged the tireless half
breed, leading the way to the shelter
of the far timber and food. With
face frOstbitten from exposure in
feeling for direction, hands numb from
untangling with mittenlesS fingers
the frozen harness of the dogs, Etienne
plunged down the slOping tundra. His
face buried in his hood and constant
iy fighting to save his numbing
fingers, Garth followed. There flashed
through his mind tales told at the
post of Crees caught, as they were,
on the high barrens, and found stiff
in the snow. But, as he doubled
against the drive of the blizzard,
blinded, unable to see the man ahead !;
often swinging off the trail while,
holding true, the canny lead-dog
passed him with the team, Garth Guth-
RE never doubted that they would win
to the timber and shelter.
Two grinding hours of slavery on
lacerated feet into the pin-pOinted
fury, and turning in their harness, the
spent dogs lay down, refusing to
move Numb to threats or urging, the
heart-brOken huskies, crusted with
ice, had made their choice. Rather
than the torture which flayed their
faces, they would lie, backs to the
barrage, while the whitening wind
slowly stiffened them to ice.
There was nothing the men could
do. The dogs were done.
81 turn dem loose. We hunt de tim
ber," Etienne shouted into Garth's
hood. With his knife he slashed the
dogs from their frozen harness, but
the huskies lay while the snow beat
over them, refusing their freedom.
Shot, white-coated from nose to tail,
gingerly muZzled the motionless
shapes. Castor, alone, resented the
act by feeble snap. Lifting their
heads. and shaking them, Garth in
turn called their names, but the
numbness of the white death already
was in their blood. Gently he lifted
Castor to his feet, but the leader sank
Imply TO the snow.
"GOod-by, boys!" he called to the
white shapes by the sled. You gave
US all you had. GOod-by"
"Dey weel freeze in ten minute
neyair feel eet now" shouted Etienne,
his voice breaking as he turned from
last word with his favorite Castor.
Shelter and fire! All thought of the
food frozen under the sled cover had
left them. The windbreak of the
spruce meant fire, warmth, life-but
how far was the timber? With the ak
from the sled the two men started.
Shot at their heels. A hundred yards
and Etienne stumbled, stopped-while
Garth lunged into him.
The man on his knees turned to the
other. DE spruce-eet ees here :"
His snOwshoes had fouled a dwarf
spruce on the edge of the timber.
Swiftly now they plunged ahead, seek
ing the heavier growth. In a hundred
yards they were in thick bush.
While Guthrie scraped out a fire.
hole with snowshoe, Etienne gath
cred dry spruce twigs and started a
fire; then slashed down saplings and
soon had a comforting heat in the
snow-hOle behind the wind-break.
With the warmth the men rubbed the
circulation into numbed hands and
faces. But out on the tundra in the
drive of the blizzard lay five loyal
friends, stiffening under the drift.
LlleUU6
started to back-track to the sled.
Guthrie, with Shot alternately plung-
ing ahead and returning to find his
master, had gone but a short distance
into the blackness with it's shot-like
hail of fine snow, when he found that
he had drifted away from the half
breed Too dark to locate tracks in
the snow which filled at once with
drift, he kept on with the wind on
his left shoulder. Suddenly he missed
Shot. He stopped and shouted, hop
ing the dog was near, but the aire-
dale was lost. or had left him. Why?
Continuing down wind, counting his
PAGES, at last Guthrie knew that he
had passed the sled in the blind murk.
so circled Etienne had said the dogs
would freeze in ten minutes-and he
had missed them; lost the chance to
save the huskies who had given him
their all that grim December day.
Then a white body shouldered into
his legs-ShOt!
Where did you go?" he shouted
into the dogs ear. But the excited
beast left him to plunge into the
storm-then returned to seize Garth's
mittened hand.
Following the dog for a space he
stumbled against a mound In the
snow-the sled. He CROPPED for the
heaps that marked the frozen dogs.
but IN vain. They We're gone. Etienne?
He bad got them up into. the. spruce.
In his joy Garth knelt and Rugged
the ice-sheeted body of the great aire-