ortunity, they might be held up by another storm, while their food
was getting short. Dick hesitated, but Mordaunt generally led him
where he would and after some argument he agreed to start. Half an
hour later they left the shack and pushed on down the line.

CHAPTER II

IN THE SNOW

When Jim left the shack the cold pierced his furs like a knife. For a
few moments he heard nothing but the roar of the gale and could hardly
get his breath. His eyes ran water and the snow beat his smarting
face. Then he braced himself, for he had gone out to mend the line on
other bitter nights and could not lose his way. Where the telegraph
runs through the forests of the North a narrow track is cut for
packhorse transport to the linesmen's posts, and one could not push
between the trunks that lined the gap without finding thickets and
tangles of fallen logs. The track, however, was not graded like a
road. Outcropping rocks broke its surface, short brush had grown up,
and although the snow had covered some of the obstacles its top was
soft.

For a time the trees broke the wind, and Jim pushed on, hoping that he
might soon find a trailing wire, but the posts loomed up, undamaged,
out of the tossing haze. Luck was obviously against him, and he might
be forced to walk half-way to the next shack, from which the other
linesman would start. The snow was loose and blew about in a kind of
frozen dust that was intolerably painful to his smarting skin.
Although his cap had ear-flaps, he could not cover his mouth and nose,
and the fine powder, dried by the cold, clogged his eyelashes and
filled his nostrils. His old coat did not keep out the wind and,
although he was in partial shelter, he was now and then compelled to
stop for breath. The gale was getting worse and, as sometimes happens
when a blizzard rages, the temperature was falling.

Jim's flesh shrank from the Arctic blast, but he knew that in the North
bodily weakness must be conquered. In the stern battle with savage
Nature prudence is a handicap; one must risk all and do what one
undertakes since there is no place in the wilderness for the man who
counts the cost. Moreover, Jim had fought harder fights, when his
strength was lowered by want of food, and he went forward, conscious of
one thing: the line was broken and must be mended. There was no other
way. He must give up his post if he could not make good.

In the meantime his physical senses, developed in th