whirling eddies of the storm swept about him as he thrust out
his head and shoulders. But over him it was rushing like an avalanche.
He could hear nothing but the moaning advance of it. And he could see
nothing. He held out his hand before his face, and blackness swallowed
it.

"We have been chased so much that we're what you might call
super-sensitive," he said, pulling himself back and nodding at Peter
in the gray light of the alcohol lamp. "Guess we'd better turn in, boy.
This is a good place to sleep--plenty of fresh air, no mosquitoes or
black flies, and the police so far away that we will soon forget how
they look. If you say so we will have a nip of cold tea and a bite--"

He did not finish. For a moment the wind had lessened in fury, as if
gathering a deeper breath. And what he heard drew a cry from him this
time, and a sharper whine from Peter. Out of the blackness of the night
had come a woman's voice! In that first instant of shock and amazement
he would have staked his life that what he heard was not a mad outcry of
the night or an illusion of his brain. It was clear--distinct--a woman's
voice coming from out on the Barren, rising above the storm in an agony
of appeal, and dying out quickly until it became a part of the moaning
wind. And then, with equal force, came the absurdity of it to McKay. A
woman! He swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat, and tried to
laugh. A WOMAN--out in that storm--a thousand miles from nowhere! It was
inconceivable.

The laugh which he forced from his lips was husky and unreal, and there
was a smothering grip of something at his heart. In the ghostly light of
the alcohol lamp his eyes were wide open and staring.

He looked at Peter. The dog stood stiff-legged before the hole. His body
was trembling.

"Peter!"

With a responsive wag of his tail Peter turned his bristling face up to
his master. Many times Jolly Roger had seen that unfailing warning in
his comrade's eyes. THERE WAS SOME ONE OUTSIDE--or Peter's brain, like
his own, was twisted and fooled by the storm!

Against his reasoning--in the face of the absurdity of it--Jolly Roger
was urged into action. He changed the snowshoe and replaced the alcohol
lamp so that the glow of light could be seen more clearly from the
Barren. Then he went to the hole and crawled through. Peter followed
him.

As if infuriated by their audacity, the storm lashed itself over the top
of the dune. They could hear the hissing whi