nflamed. It communicated the evil to the chimney, which
straightway caught fire, belched forth smoke and flames, and cast a
ruddy glare over the usually pallid snow. This chanced to meet the eye
of Salamander as he gazed from his "bunk" in the men's house; caused him
to bounce up and rush out--for, having a taste for sleeping in his
clothes, he was always ready for action--burst open our door with a
crash, and rudely dispel our confusedly pleasant intercourse with the
exceedingly sharp and bitter cry before mentioned.

"Hallo!" shouted Lumley and Spooner simultaneously, as they bounded
rather than rose from my bed. Before they had crossed the threshold I
was out of bed and into my trousers.

There is nothing like the cry of "Fire!" for producing prompt action--or
paralysis! Also for inducing imbecile stupidity. I could not find my
moccasins! Thought is quick--quicker than words. Amputation at the
knee joints stared me in the face for a certainty if I went out with
naked feet. In desperation I seized my capote and thrust both feet into
the sleeves, with some hazy intention of tying a knot on each wrist to
protect the toes. Happily I espied my moccasins at the moment, pulled
them on--left shoe on right foot, of course--and put the coat to its
proper use.

By this time Salamander, contrary to all traditions of Indian stoicism,
was yelling about the fort with his eyes a flame and his hair on end.
The men were out in a few seconds with a ladder, and swarmed up to the
roof of our house, without any definite notion as to what they meant to
do. Mr Strang was also out, smothered in winter garments, and with an
enormous Makinaw blanket over all. He was greatly excited, though the
most self-possessed among us--as most chiefs are, or ought to be.

"Water! water!" shouted the men from the roof.

A keen breeze was blowing from what seemed the very heart of King
Frost's dominion, and snow-drift fine as dust and penetrating as
needles, was swirling about in the night-air.

Water! where was water to come from? The river was frozen almost to the
bottom. Ice six feet thick covered the lakes and ponds. The sound of
trickling water had not been heard for months. It had become an ancient
memory. Water! why, it cost our cook's assistant a full hour every day
to cut through the result of one night's frost in the water-hole before
he could reach the water required for daily use, and what he did obtain
had to be slowly drag