warmth as it afforded, and further
rest; the brain is dull and heavy, and the aching limbs appear incapable
of supporting the weight on them. Difficulties loom appallingly large in
the faint creeping light, courage fails, and the will grows feeble.
Wyllard and his companions felt all this, but it was clear to them that
they could not dally, with their provisions out, and staggering out of
camp after a very scanty meal they hauled the sled through the slush for
an hour or so. Then they had stopped, gasping, and the Indian slipped
out of the traces.

"We've hauled that thing about far enough," said Charly, who dropped the
traces, too, and slipped away from the sled.

Wyllard stood looking at them for a moment or two with anxious eyes. It
was evident that they could haul the hampering load no further, and he
was troubled by an almost insupportable weariness.

"In that case," he said, "you have to decide what you'll leave behind."

They discussed the subject for some minutes, partly because it furnished
an excuse for sitting upon the sled, though none of them had much doubt
as to the result of the council. It was unthinkable that they should
sacrifice a scrap of the provisions. Then, when each man had lashed a
light load upon his shoulders with a portion of the cut-up traces, they
set out again, and it rained upon them heavily all that day.

During the four following days they were buffeted by a furious wind, but
the temperature had risen, and the snow was melting fast, and splashing
knee-deep through slush and water they made progress. While he stumbled
along with the pack-straps galling his shoulders, Wyllard was conscious
of little beyond the unceasing pain in his joints and the leaden
heaviness of his limbs. The recollection of that march haunted him like
a horrible nightmare long afterwards, when each sensation and incident
emerged from the haze of numbing misery. He remembered that he stormed
at Charly, who lagged behind now and then in a fit of languid dejection,
and that once he fell heavily, and was sensible of a half-conscious
regret that he was still capable of going on, when the Indian dragged
him to his feet again. They rarely spoke to one another, and noticed
nothing beyond the strip of white waste, through which uncovered brown
patches commenced to break, immediately in front of them, except when
they crossed some low elevation and looked down upon the stretch of dull
gray water not far away on one hand.