estuary; for, by Mr.
Balfour's advice, he had determined to follow the coast line rather
than attempt the shorter but more uncertain inland route.

Although the distance to be covered was but little over one hundred
miles, the journey was so beset with difficulties and hardships that
only our young engineer's splendid physical condition and recently
acquired skill, combined with indomitable pluck, enabled him to
accomplish it. While he sometimes met with smooth stretches of
snow-covered ice, it was generally piled in huge wind-rows, incredibly
rugged and difficult to surmount. Again it would be broken away from
the base of sheer cliffs, where stretches of open water would
necessitate toilsome inland detours over or around lofty headlands. He
was always buffetted by strong winds, and often halted by blinding
snowstorms. He had no fire, no warm food, and no shelter save such as
he could make by burrowing into snowdrifts. During the weary hours of
one whole night he held a pack of snarling wolves at bay by means of
his flashlight. But always he pushed doggedly forward, and after ten
days of struggle, exhausted almost beyond the power for further effort,
but immensely proud of his achievement, he reached the goal of his long
desire.

Indian Harbour--with its hospital, its church, its two or three houses,
and score of native huts, seemed to our lad almost a metropolis after
his months of wilderness life, and the welcome he received from its
warm-hearted inhabitants when he made known his identity was that of
one raised from the dead. White Baldwin and Yim had been there many
weeks earlier, and had reported his disappearance under circumstances
that left no hope of his ever again being seen alive. Then the latter
had set forth on his return journey, while White had joined a mail
carrier and started for Battle Harbour.

Now occurred what promised to be a serious interruption to Cabot's
southward advance, for no one was proposing to travel in that
direction, and, in spite of their hospitality, his new acquaintances
were not inclined to undertake the arduous task of guiding him to
Battle Harbour, 250 miles away, without being well paid for their
labour, and our young engineer had no money. Nor, after his recent
experience, did he care to again encounter the perils of the wilderness
alone.

But fortune once more favoured him; for while he was chafing against
this enforced detention, Dr. Graham Aspland, house surgeon