ity, feeding on bitter food while their elbows
rubbed.

Noon found them floundering through one of those unheralded storms which
make coast travel so hazardous. The morning had turned off gray, the sky
was of a leaden hue which blended perfectly with the snow underfoot,
there was no horizon, it was impossible to see more than a few yards in
any direction. The trail soon became obliterated and their eyes began to
play tricks. For all they could distinguish, they might have been
suspended in space; they seemed to be treading the measures of an
endless dance in the center of a whirling cloud. Of course it was cold,
for the wind off the open sea was damp, but they were not men to turn
back.

They soon discovered that their difficulty lay not in facing the storm,
but in holding to the trail. That narrow, two-foot causeway, packed by a
winter's travel and frozen into a ribbon of ice by a winter's frosts,
afforded their only avenue of progress, for the moment they left it the
sled plowed into the loose snow, well-nigh disappearing and bringing the
dogs to a standstill. It was the duty of the driver, in such case, to
wallow forward, right the load if necessary, and lift it back into
place. These mishaps were forever occurring, for it was impossible to
distinguish the trail beneath its soft covering. However, if the
driver's task was hard it was no more trying than that of the man ahead,
who was compelled to feel out and explore the ridge of hardened snow and
ice with his feet, after the fashion of a man walking a plank in the
dark. Frequently he lunged into the drifts with one foot, or both; his
glazed mukluk soles slid about, causing him to bestride the invisible
hogback, or again his legs crossed awkwardly, throwing him off his
balance. At times he wandered away from the path entirely and had to
search it out again. These exertions were very wearing and they were
dangerous, also, for joints are easily dislocated, muscles twisted, and
tendons strained.

Hour after hour the march continued, unrelieved by any change, unbroken
by any speck or spot of color. The nerves of their eyes, wearied by
constant nearsighted peering at the snow, began to jump so that vision
became untrustworthy. Both travelers appreciated the necessity of
clinging to the trail, for, once they lost it, they knew they might
wander about indefinitely until they chanced to regain it or found their
way to the shore, while always to seaward was the menace of o