imself, he usually got what he wanted.

"I'm a go-getter," he laughed in self-appreciation.

The sun was climbing in the sky, and the reflection from the great white
field of snow covered ice was intense. At this season it is never safe
to travel in the north with the eyes unprotected by goggles fitted with
smoked or orange-tinted glasses. The penalty for neglect might prove a
serious attack of snow-blindness.

Marks felt in a pocket for his goggles. He could not find them. He felt
in another pocket, and repeated the search, but they were not to be
found. Then he remembered that he had laid them on the shelf beside the
clock, at Double Up Cove, at the time he had taken off his adikey the
previous day, and he had no recollection of having removed them from the
shelf.

It was a risk to proceed without them, but there was a very good reason
why he could not safely return to the cabin at Double Up Cove. He felt
that it was to his advantage, until the Twigs had become accustomed to
the loss of the silver fox skin, to place as many miles as he could
between himself and them, and to do it as quickly as possible. Toby was
stubborn, and nobody knew what he might do in his first anger upon
discovering his loss.

"He might even shoot," he mused. "That other fellow didn't like me, and
the two work together. I'll take a chance without glasses, and won't go
back for them."

He turned about on the komatik and looked toward the cabin, his guilty
conscience prompting him to fear that even now he might be followed. The
cabin was still in view, and to his relief he could discover no
activity, and nothing to alarm him.

He urged the dogs forward, and did not halt until he had passed Pinch-In
Tickle, and early in the afternoon had turned into the next bay to the
southward.

Here he found a grove of spruce trees, and with firewood at hand he
stopped and lighted a fire and put his kettle over to boil for luncheon.

When the fire was burning freely, Marks discovered, upon looking into
it, a painful sensation in his eyeballs. The glare of the snow had
affected them. Before he finished eating, the pain had developed
considerably, and he determined to remain where he was until sunset,
when he would proceed to Aaron Slade's cabin, some five miles farther.
Here he could spend the night, and could borrow a pair of goggles, he
was sure, from Aaron. If he kept his eyes closed in the meantime, he
had no doubt they would be much improved when