nted. The four wolfish dogs were so startled by the whirr,
that their spirits were roused to the mischievous point. Up to that
moment they had been toiling and panting through the soft snow in the
woods. They had now emerged upon the hard, wind-beaten snow of the open
ground and the lake. The sudden freedom in the action of their limbs,
coupled with the impulse to their spirits, caused the team to bound
forward with one accord. The sled swung round against Macnab's legs,
and overturned him; and the tail-line was jerked out of Big Otter's
grasp. In a vain effort to recover it, that solemn savage trod, with
his right, on his own left snow-shoe, and plunged into a willow bush.
Thus freed altogether, the dogs went away with railway speed over the
hard snow, ever urged to more and more frantic exertions by the wild
boundings of the comparatively light sled behind them.

"After them, lad!" shouted Macnab, as he cast off his snow-shoes and
gave chase.

The Indian followed suit in desperate haste, for his receptive mind at
once perceived the all but hopeless nature of a chase after four
long-legged dogs, little removed from genuine wolves, over a hard level
course that extended away to the very horizon.

Happily, there was a small island not far from the shore of the lake, on
which grew a few willow bushes whose tops protruded above the
overwhelming snow, and whose buds formed the food of the ptarmigan
before mentioned. Towards this island the dogs headed in their blind
race just as the white man and the red began to regret the comparative
slowness of human legs.

"Good luck!" exclaimed Macnab.

"Waugh!" responded his companion.

There was ground for both remarks, for, a few minutes later, the dogs
plunged into the bushes and the sled stuck fast and held them.

This was a trifling incident in itself, but it shook out of the
travellers any remains of lethargy that might have clung to them from
the slumbers of the previous night, and caused them to face the tramp
that lay before them with energy.

"Oh, you _ras_cals!" growled Macnab, as he went down on his knees beside
the leading dog to disentangle the traces which had been twisted up in
the abrupt stoppage.

I know not whether those dogs, being intellectually as well as
physically powerful beyond their fellows, understood the uncomplimentary
term and lost their tempers, but certain it is that the words were no
sooner uttered than the hindmost dog made an unpro