s a good sign."

There was no evidence of the young men. Either they had died on the
other side of the divide or they had turned back.

There was so little food that they dared not eat a tithe of what they
needed, nor a hundredth part of what they desired, and in the days that
followed, wandering through the lone mountain-land, the sharp sting
of life grew blunted and the wandering merged half into a dream.
Smoke would become abruptly conscious, to find himself staring at the
never-ending hated snow-peaks, his senseless babble still ringing in
his ears. And the next he would know, after seeming centuries, was that
again he was roused to the sound of his own maunderings. Labiskwee,
too, was light-headed most of the time. In the main their efforts were
unreasoned, automatic. And ever they worked toward the west, and ever
they were baffled and thrust north or south by snow-peaks and impassable
ranges.

"There is no way south," Labiskwee said. "The old men know. West, only
west, is the way."

The young men no longer pursued, but famine crowded on the trail.

Came a day when it turned cold, and a thick snow, that was not snow but
frost crystals of the size of grains of sand, began to fall. All day and
night it fell, and for three days and nights it continued to fall. It
was impossible to travel until it crusted under the spring sun, so they
lay in their furs and rested, and ate less because they rested. So small
was the ration they permitted that it gave no appeasement to the hunger
pang that was much of the stomach, but more of the brain. And Labiskwee,
delirious, maddened by the taste of her tiny portion, sobbing and
mumbling, yelping sharp little animal cries of joy, fell upon the next
day's portion and crammed it into her mouth.

Then it was given to Smoke to see a wonderful thing. The food between
her teeth roused her to consciousness. She spat it out, and with a great
anger struck herself with her clenched fist on the offending mouth.

It was given to Smoke to see many wonderful things in the days yet to
come. After the long snow-fall came on a great wind that drove the dry
and tiny frost-particles as sand is driven in a sand-storm. All through
the night the sand-frost drove by, and in the full light of a clear and
wind-blown day, Smoke looked with swimming eyes and reeling brain upon
what he took to be the vision of a dream. All about towered great peaks
and small, lone sentinels and groups and councils of migh