e rifle, holding it thrust forward in front of
him while crouching low he looked down for a spot on which to set his
foot each time he moved. It would, he knew, be useless to go any further
if a stone turned over now. He was fortunate, however, and, strung up to
highest tension, he stole into the deeper gloom behind the rock.

A little pool ran in close beneath the rock, but it was covered with ice
and slushy snow. Treading cautiously, he crept across it, and held his
breath as he moved out from behind the rock. He stopped suddenly, for a
man stood face to face with him scarcely a stone's throw away. The
stranger's fur-clad figure cut sharply against a gleaming back of snow,
and he held a gun in his hand. Though the light had almost gone, it was
evident to Wyllard that he was a white man.

They stood very still for several seconds gazing at each other, and then
the stranger dropped the butt of his weapon and called out sharply,
uttering words in a tongue that Wyllard did not recognize. Wyllard did
not move and the man spoke again. What he said was still unintelligible,
but this time Wyllard knew that he was trying German. When he received
only a shake of the head as an answer, the stranger tried again. This
time is was French that he spoke.

"You can come forward, comrade," he said.

He did not seem to be hostile, and Wyllard, who tossed his rifle into
the hollow of his left arm, moved out a pace or two to meet him.

"You are Russian?" he questioned in the language the other had used, for
French is freely spoken in parts of Canada.

The man laughed. "That afterwards," he answered.

"It is said so. My name is Overweg--Albrecht Overweg. As to you, it
appears you do not understand Russian."

Wyllard drew a little nearer, and sat down upon a boulder. Now that the
tension had slackened, his weariness had once more become almost
insupportable, and he felt that he might need his strength and senses.
He was bewildered by the encounter, for it was certainly astonishing in
that desolate wilderness to fall in with a man who spoke three civilized
languages and wore spectacles.

"No," he replied, after a slight pause, "it is almost the first time I
have heard Russian spoken."

"Ah," responded the other, "there is a certain significance in that
admission, my friend. May I inquire where you have come from, and what
you are doing here?"

Wyllard, who had no desire to give him any information concerning the
quest for his lo