rom here--from--ha!--from Nort Pole, and put them
in my hut, where they will be safe."

The Captain did not at once reply. Turning to his companions he said--

"I see no particular reason to fear this `danger in the air.' I'll go
and consult Chingatok or his father on the point."

"The ancient one, as you call him," said Benjy, "seems to be growing
timid with age."

"The youthful one," retorted the Captain, "seems to be growing insolent
with age. Go, you scamp, and tell Amalatok I want to speak with him."

Whatever faults our young hero had, disobedience was not one of them.
He rose promptly, and soon returned with the chief of Poloeland.

Amalatok confirmed the wizard's opinions, and both opinions were still
more powerfully confirmed, while he was speaking, by a gust of wind
which suddenly came rushing at them as if from all points of the
compass, converging at the Pole and shooting upwards like a whirlwind,
carrying several hats of the party with volumes of the now wildly
agitated snow up into the sky.

There was no room for further hesitation.

"Why, Massa Bunjay, I thought my woolly scalp he hoed up 'long wid my
hat!" cried Butterface, leaping up in obedience to the Captain's hurried
order to look sharp and lend a hand.

In a short time all the instruments were removed from the observatory
and carefully housed in Makitok's hut. Even while they were thus
engaged the storm burst on them with excessive violence. The snow which
had been falling so softly, was caught up by the conflicting winds and
hurled high into the air, or driven furiously over the valley in all
directions, for the gale did not come from any fixed quarter; it rose
and swooped and eddied about, driving the snow-drift now here, now
there, and shrieking as if in wild delight at the chaotic havoc it was
permitted to play.

"Confusion worse confounded!" gasped Leo, as he staggered past Alf with
the last load on his shoulder.

"And yet there must be order _everywhere_," observed Chingatok, when,
after all were safely housed in Makitok's hut that evening, he heard Leo
repeat that sentiment.

"Why do you think so, Chingatok?" asked the Captain with some curiosity.

"Because there is order even in my hut," returned the giant. "Pingasuk,
(referring to his wife), keeps all things in perfect order. Is the
World-Maker less wise than Pingasuk? Sometimes, no doubt, when Pingasuk
is cooking, or arranging, things may seem in disorder to the eye