the bent ash edge of a
snowshoe, and firmly lashed in the center of the webbing was the
moccasined foot of a man.

Other men came, floundering and sprawling over each other in the
darkness, and the word was bellowed from lips to listening ear that a
man lay buried beneath the drift.

"Dig! Ye tarriers!" roared Fallon as his heavy mittens gouged into the
snow. "Dig! Ut's th' boss!" he yelled into the ear of the nearest man.
"Oi know thim rackets!"

And from lip to bearded lip the word passed, and the big men of the
logs redoubled their efforts; but the fine snow had packed hard around
the prostrate form, and it was many minutes before they had uncovered
him sufficiently to note the smaller body lashed tightly upon his back.
The frozen lash was soon severed and the two exanimate bodies lifted in
eager hands.

Buckets were left to snow under as the men crowded up the bank, howling
into each other's ears. Big Stromberg, who bore the boss in his arms,
was propelled up the steep slope by the men who crowded about him,
pushing, pulling, hauling--the ground-gaining, revolving wedge of the
old days of mass formation in football.

"To th' office wid um!" roared Fallon in Stromberg's ear as they milled
across the clearing. "Th' b'ys'll crowd th' bunk-house till they
hindher more thin hilp!"

The boy responded quickly to vigorous treatment and stimulants and was
removed to his own bunk and placed under the able care of his Aunt
Margaret and Mrs. Sheridan.

In the office Ethel Manton, white-faced and silent, watched
breathlessly the efforts of Appleton and Blood River Jack to revive the
exhausted and half-frozen foreman. The lumber magnate unscrewed the
silver cap from a morocco-covered flask and poured out a generous dose
of liquor; but before it reached the unconscious man's lips the
half-breed stayed his hand.

"M's'u' Bill drinks no whisky," he said. "Even in the time of his great
sickness would he drink no whisky; and if you give him whisky he will
be very angry."

Appleton paused and glanced curiously from the face of the half-breed
to the still form upon the bunk, and the other continued:

"It is strange--I do not know--but he told it to Jeanne one day--that,
in the great city of the white man is a girl he loves. He used to drink
much whisky, and for that reason she sent him from her--and now he
drinks no whisky--even though this girl has married another."

Ethel stared at the speaker, wide-eyed, and the pallo