faltering tones she declared herself "perfectly comfortable; found
the scenery glorious, and simply loved traveling by dog team." Had Baldy
understood this assurance of a "delightful ride," and had he seen
Jemima's strenuous resistance against what was necessary for her
well-being, it might have seemed to him proof positive of the existence
of certain traits characteristically feminine.

Kid, who was no respecter of the elements, much less of people, and
whose one rule of life appeared to be "Get There, and Get There First,"
dashed up those slippery barriers to find a sheer drop of five feet or
more on the other side, down which he would take team and sled.

The cold had become still more intense, and the thermometer they carried
registered thirty degrees below zero, with the summit far beyond. The
situation was serious, and "Scotty" felt that their best chance for
safety lay in the speed with which they could cross the Divide, and
reach the open country; for there the trail led over the flats, and
there were not the menacing precipices, that could not now be seen
through a dense fall of eddying snow.

The way had been completely obliterated, and even Kid had paused,
confused, and for once uncertain of the next move. "Scotty" called the
boy to the handle-bars. "Stand on the brake, Ben, and shout to Kid if he
should start after me. He may hear you even above the storm. I'll have
to go on to see if I cannot locate some sort of a trail." He lowered his
voice. "This is the worst place in the Sawtooth Range to be caught, and
I'll have to depend upon you to do a man's work. Losing the way now
would be a desperate matter, but of course we must not let her know how
desperate," with a gesture toward the sled.

When Allan forged ahead into the thickness of the whirling snow, and
disappeared completely, the boy felt a strange dread of the unknown.
There was something appalling in the mighty force of the Arctic blizzard
that had fallen full upon them. Something ghostly in the silent,
motionless figure of the Woman, covered as with a pall, by the drifting
snow, and in the shadowy string of dogs faintly seen, from time to time,
when a rare lull cleared the air to a dim and misty grayness. Something
terrifying in the cruel sting of the bitter wind that cut into the flesh
like whip-lashes, and shrieked and howled in its unspent rage over that
lonely and desolate mountain fastness.

It seemed ages before "Scotty" returned to report