aid Mr. Baxter.

"Will you tell him?"

"Never! And I hope you boys will remain firm, no matter what he does."

"I'll not," declared Fred. The search for the gold had been too hard,
and the possession of it meant too much to him to make him willing, even
under stress of dire threats, to tell where it was hidden.

"He'll have to threaten me good and hard before I'll tell him where it
is," said Jerry.

"Perhaps he may find it himself," suggested Fred.

"I don't think so," observed Mr. Baxter. "We hid it very carefully, and
it will take some digging, even if he thinks to try that method, before
he'll come upon it. By that time Holfax and his men may arrive."

That it was not Callack's plan to starve his captives was shown a little
later, when a couple of Indians came in with some hot tea and some
meat. There was also some cold tallow, an article of diet much esteemed
by the Alaskans in the winter, and the treasure finders had learned to
eat it. For fats are very heating, and some such food as that is much
needed in the Arctic region.

"He's up to some move," said Fred, as, looking from the tent-flap, he
saw a lot of the Indians beginning to break camp.

"Maybe they're going to leave us here and go back to the cave where we
found the gold, thinking that we left it hidden there," suggested Jerry.

"No, they know we brought the gold away," said his father. "Their spy
was there for that purpose."

"They certainly are moving the camp," went on Fred.

Moving it they were, but for no great distance. The tents and supplies,
including those of the prisoners, their sleds and dogs, were taken
toward the place where the ice fort had been built around the base of
the great hummock.

"He's going back to our old camp!" exclaimed Fred.

"I thought he would," added Mr. Baxter. "He's going to have a try for
the gold there. Well, I hope he doesn't find it."

A little later Callack approached the tent where the three captives
were.

"We're going to shift a bit," he said gruffly. "Going to where you had
your camp. I'll dig up the gold there, and then I'll see what I'll do
with you."

If he hoped to provoke a response by this he was disappointed, for
neither Mr. Baxter nor the boys answered. Callack did not appear
surprised to see that his prisoners were no longer bound. Perhaps he
thought the Indians who had brought them the breakfast had loosed the
thongs.

Closely guarded on all sides by the dusky Alaskans, Mr. Baxter a