his beard, and his _netsek_ white and
glistening with the frost that way, I'd think he had stepped right out
of the old picture book."

"Good old Partner!" said Jimmy. "I think I'll drop back with him a while
and keep him company."

And, dropping lightly from the moving _komatik_, he waited to run along
for a while with Skipper Ed, while Bobby ran alone with his own sledge.

Once a lonely raven coming from somewhere out of the blank spaces
alighted on the ice a quarter of a mile in advance of Bobby's team and
directly in its track. The dogs saw it immediately, and in an instant
they were after it at a mad gallop. Bobby threw himself upon the sledge,
in high glee at the wild pace, and Skipper Ed's team, quite sure they
were missing something very much worth while, set out in hot pursuit.

In seeming disregard for his safety, the raven, cocking his head first
on one side, then on the other, surveyed the approaching dogs with
interest, and to Bobby it seemed that the dogs would surely catch him.
Old Tucktu, the leader, was apparently of the same mind and very sure
of a tasty morsel, and they were almost upon him before the raven, too
dignified to hurry, rose leisurely on his wings, tantalizingly near to
Tucktu's nose, and flapped away another quarter of a mile to repeat,
with evident enjoyment, the episode, and then, unscathed, he disappeared
again into the blank spaces.

When the raven had gone and the excitement was at an end, Bobby and
Skipper Ed shouted "_Ah_!" at their teams, and ran ahead with their long
whips as the dogs stopped, to compel the panting animals to lie down and
remain quiet while they straightened out the tangled traces and made
merry over the rapid ride they had enjoyed. Then, extracting some
hardtack biscuits from their bags, they sat on the sledges and ate their
dry luncheon while the dogs jogged leisurely on again.

The sun was setting when Bobby, now well in the lead, halted his team at
Abel Zachariah's old fishing place on Itigailit Island to await Skipper
Ed and Jimmy. The sea, far out in the direction in which Abel had found
Bobby in the drifting boat that August morning, was frozen, and a little
way out from Itigailit Island the smooth ice gave place to mountainous
ridges and hummocks where, earlier in the season, rough seas had piled
massive blocks one upon another and left them there to freeze and catch
the drifting snow. Far out beyond the pressure ridges Bobby could see a
dark line w