ndous uplift. Bull had yearned for it for weeks.
But the short days and long nights of deferred hope had had their
effect. He had almost come to feel that this thing that was now at hand
was something impossible.

Yes. There was the outfit growing plainer and plainer with every moment.
He could see it clearly. He could even count its details as the other's
sharper eyes had counted them minutes before. There were five dogs. And
they were running hard. They, too, were being flogged, and the man
driving them was shouting furiously in his urgency.

Suddenly there was a leap of flame and a shot rang out. It came from the
driver of the fleeing dog train. It was replied to on the instant by
Gouter who lost not a second. His own shot sped even as the enemy's
bullet whistled somewhere past his head. He fired again. A third shot
split the air. And with that last shot the enemy's sled seemed to leap
in the air. There was a moment of hideous confusion. Then the wreckage
dropped away behind the pursuers, sprawled and still in the snow.

A fierce shout from Gouter and his dogs swung round. The sled under him
heeled over, and took a desperate chance on a single runner. But the
half-breed's skill saved them from catastrophe. It righted itself, and
the dogs slowed to a trot. Then they halted. And the occupants of the
sled flung themselves prone, with their guns ready for the first sign of
movement in the tangled mass of their adversary's outfit.

* * * * *

Two of the dogs lay buried under the overturned sled. Three others were
sprawling at the end of their rawhide tugs. They were alive. They were
unhurt. They lay there taking full advantage of the situation for rest.

But for the moment interest centred round the body of a white man lying
some yards away. A groan of pain came up to the two men standing over
him.

Bull dropped on his knees. He reached down and turned the body over. The
eyes of the man were visible between the sides of his fur hood. But that
was all.

There was a moment of silent contemplation. Then the injured man
struggled desperately to rise.

"Sternford?" he ejaculated

Gouter was on him in a moment. He heard the tone of voice, and
interpreted the man's movement in his own savage fashion. He knew the
man to be the driver of the team, whom his boss had told him was his
man. So he threw him back and held him.

Bull stood up. The man's voice told him all he wanted to know.