st them.

Mark aimed at once fierce beast, but missed his shot, and, slipping on
the ice, fell right in the animal's path. In an instant the brute was
upon him.

"Lie on your back and cover your head with your arms!" shouted Andy, as
he ran toward the animal. Mark did as he was told. The dog endeavored to
bite him, but the stout furs on his back prevented much damage being
done. Then, having secured a large chunk of ice, Andy ran up behind the
beast and stretched it out with a well-directed blow. Mark was saved,
and scrambled to his feet uninjured.

Suddenly there sounded a series of sharp reports as if a rifle was
being discharged. The refugees looked up, expecting to see some armed
force coming to their aid. Instead, they beheld the Esquimaux driver
approaching on the run. He was swinging his long-lashed whip, which he
had secured from the crack in the ice where he had stuck it, and was
snapping it vigorously.

At the same time he called in his native language to the dogs to lie
down. The brutes heard the cracking of the cruel thong, whose force they
knew but too well, and they recognized their master's voice. On came the
Esquimaux, until, reaching the pack of dogs, he laid about among them
with good will, the blows of the whip bringing blood.

Sticking their tails between their legs, the remaining dogs ran away
with frightened yelps. The driver had come in the nick of time.

"That was quite a fright!" panted Andy, when the excitement was at an
end. "My, but those were fierce brutes!"

While the dogs that were left alive among the pack, including several
wounded ones, withdrew to a far end of the ice floe, the adventurers
crawled back under the tent for a much-needed rest. The Esquimaux, with
a silence worthy of an American Indian, took up his position in the
small doorway.

It was growing much colder, and the big chunk of ice that served the
refugees as a raft was moving quite rapidly over a choppy sea.

It was several hours later that the Esquimaux with a loud cry attracted
all the others to the tent opening. He pointed ahead.

"I believe we're drifting back to shore!" shouted Andy.

CHAPTER XXVII

BACK TO THE SHIP

With anxious eyes the adventurers crawled out on the floe and gazed
ahead. Across the black stretch of water could be seen a dim whiteness.
It looked like the main ice pack, but they realized that it might be
only another floe or berg. The current was setting strong in the
direct