black cliff of the Duck's Head. They were well down the bay when
daylight came, and at last the sun rose, and its glorious rays set the
rime-filled air shimmering like a veil of silver.

An hour before noon they reached Pinch-In Tickle, and stopped in the
cabin to boil the kettle and eat a hasty luncheon. What memories it
revived of the day when Charley first entered the door with Toby, and
was first greeted by Skipper Zeb! How miserable a place in which to live
Charley thought it then! How alone and deserted he felt! Now it appealed
to him as not uncomfortable, and here he had found friends and a
welcome; and the thought came to him that when the time to leave The
Labrador came he would feel equally as badly at the leaving as he had at
the entry.

Upon investigation, the ice in the tickle proved unsafe, and in the
center there was some open water, where the tide surging in and out of
the narrow passage had not permitted it to freeze.

In order, therefore, to reach the sea ice outside, it proved necessary
to cross the low ridge of hills to the eastward of the cabin, which
Charley and Toby had climbed on the day that the mail boat deserted
Charley.

The ridge was bare of trees, and there was a hard coating of icy snow
upon its rocky surface. From the cabins to the summit the slope was
gradual, and with some help over the steeper places, the dogs hauled the
komatik to the summit with little difficulty.

The descent to the sea ice on the opposite side was much more abrupt.
Immediately it was begun, the komatik began to coast, and Toby threw a
ring of braided walrus hide over the front end of one of the runners.
This "drag," as he called it, was three feet in diameter and as thick as
his wrist. The lower side of the ring, dragging back under the runner,
was forced into the hard snow, and thus served to retard the komatik,
but even then it gathered such speed that the dogs were forced to turn
aside, lest it should run them down, and to race with it as fast as they
could run. Toby threw himself upon his side upon the komatik, clinging
to it with both hands, and sticking his heels into the snow at the side
and in front of him, and running with the komatik at the same time, put
forth all his strength to hold it back.

This is exceedingly dangerous work, as Charley realized. A single
misstep might result in a broken leg, and even worse injury, and Charley
held his breath in expectation that some such catastrophe would sure