n his doorway gazing out at the cheerless grey of early
morning, watching with interest the handling of the three great dog
trains which he had seen come into town with their laden sleds only
three days before.

For all the cold and the early morning drear, for all he was of the life
of the desolate shores of Seal Bay, for all the comings and goings of
the men of the trails, for whom he mostly entertained a more or less
profound contempt, for Alroy Leclerc there was still a fascination
attached to the mysterious beyond to which these people belonged.
Somewhere out there was a great white world whose secrets he could only
guess at. The life was a life he did not envy. He knew it by the
thousand and one stories of disaster and miraculous escape he had
listened to, but that was all. There was more in it, he knew. Much more.
It held fascinated the adventurous, untamed spirits of men whose
superhuman efforts, yielding them little better than a pittance, still
made possible the enormous profits of a parasitic world which battened
upon them, and sucked them dry. Oh, yes. Whatever his sympathies he had
a pretty wide understanding of the lives of these men. He also knew that
he was one of the parasites which battened upon them. But he had no
scruples. Nor had he envy. Only a sort of fascination which never failed
at the sight of a sled, and a powerful train of well-handled dogs.

It was that which he looked upon now. He watched the two Indians stir
the savage creatures from their crouching upon the snow. It was the
harsh law of the club administered by skilled but merciless hands. The
great, grey beasts, fully half wolf, understood nothing more gentle.

In moments only the whole of the three trains were alert and ready on
their feet straining against the rawhide breast draws of their harness.
Then the white man shouted the word to "mush." The long hardwood poles
of the men broke out the sleds from the frozen grip of snow, and the
whole of the lightened outfit dashed off at a rapid, almost headlong
gait.

For a few moments Alroy remained at his post gazing after them. Then of
a sudden his attention was drawn in an opposite direction.

It was an incoming train. A single sled, heavily laden, but with only a
team of three dogs, far inferior to those which had just passed out of
the town. They cut into the main thoroughfare out of a side turning and
headed at once for the store of the Seal Bay Trading Company.

He looked for th