tches beyond the horizon.

By and by, however, they ran in among low sandy hills, dotted with
dwarf pines here and there, and the pace slackened. The grass was
thin, the wheels sank in deep, loose sand, and the sun was getting
unpleasantly hot. For half an hour they drove on; and then the team
came to a standstill, necked with spume, at the foot of a short, steep
rise. Edgar alighted and found the heat almost insupportable. There
was glaring sand all about him, and the breeze which swept the prairie
was cut off by the hill in front.

"You'll have to help the team," George told him, as he went to the
horses' heads.

Edgar and the hired man each seized a wheel and endeavored to start the
vehicle, while the horses plunged in the slipping sand. They made a
few yards, with clouds of grit flying up about them, and afterward came
to a stop again. Next they tried pushing; and after several rests they
arrived, breathless and gasping, at the crest of the rise. There was a
big hollow in front, and on the opposite side a ridge which looked
steeper than the last one.

"How much do you think there is of this?" Edgar inquired.

"I can't say," George answered. "I know of one belt that runs for
forty miles."

Even walking downhill was laborious, for they sank ankle-deep, but it
was very much worse when they faced the ascent. Short as the hill was,
it took them some time to climb; and, with the hired man's assistance,
Edgar carried a heavy trunk up the last part of it. Then he sat down.

"I'm not sure I can smoke, but I intend to try," he said. "If you mean
to rush the next hill right off, you will go without me." He turned to
the hired man. "What do you think of these roads, Grierson?"

"I've seen better, sir," the other answered cautiously. "Perhaps the
hills don't go on very far."

Edgar ruefully glanced ahead at scattered pines, clumps of brush, and
ridges of gleaming sand.

"It's my opinion there's no end to them! Hauling a load of wheat
through this kind of country must be a bit of an undertaking."

After a short rest, they toiled for an hour through the sand; and then
rode slowly over a road thickly strewn with straw, which bore the
wheels. It led them across lower ground to a strong wire fence, where
it forked: one branch skirting the barrier along the edge of a muskeg,
the other running through the enclosed land. Deciding to take the
latter, George got down at the entrance, which was barred by sever