ggets. The "pocket" was not to be seen. It was buried out of sight
under tons of ice.

"We'll get no more gold here," decided Abe, "if we get safely out of
th' valley, and t' the nearest white settlement, we'll be lucky."

"Bless my soul! Is it as bad as that!" cried Mr. Damon.

Abe nodded without speaking. There was nothing else to do. Sadly and
silently they made up into packs the things they had saved, and
started southward, guided by a small compass the miner had with him.

It was a melancholy party. Fortunately the weather had turned a
little warmer or they might have been frozen to death. They tramped
all that day, shaping their course to take them out of the valley on
a side well away from where the hostile natives lived. At night they
made rude shelters of snow and blocks of ice and ate cold victuals.
The second day it grew colder, and they were slightly affected by
snow-blindness, for they had lost their dark glasses in the cave.

Even the gold seemed too great a burden to carry, and they found
they had more of it than at first they supposed. On the third day
they were ready to give up, but Abe bravely urged them on. Toward
the close of the fourth day, even the old miner was in despair, for
the food they could carry was not such as to give strength and
warmth, and they saw no game to shoot.

They were just getting ready to go into a cheerless camp for the
night, when Tom, who was a little in advance, looked ahead.

"Ned, do I see something or is it only a vision?" he asked.

"What does it look like?" asked his chum.

"Like Eskimos on sleds."

"That's what it is," agreed Ned, after an observation. "Maybe it's
the Fogers, or some of the savage Indians."

They halted in alarm, and got out their guns. The little party of
natives kept coming on toward them.

Suddenly Abe uttered a cry, but it was one of joy and not fear.

"Hurrah!" he yelled, "It's all right--they're friendly natives!
They're of the same tribe that helped me an' my partner! It's all
right, boys, we're rescued now!"

And so it proved. A few minutes later the gold-seekers were on the
sleds of the friendly Eskimos, some of whom remembered Abe, and the
weary and hungry adventures were being rushed toward the native
village as fast as the dogs could run. It was a hunting party that
had come upon our friends just in time.

Little more remains to be told. Well cared for by the kind Eskimos,
Tom and his friends soon recovered their spirits