r know how loftily sardonic Nature can be who have not
seen that land where the mercury freezes in the tubes, and there is
light but no warmth in the smile of the sun. Not Sturt in the heart
of Australia with the mercury bursting the fevered tubes, with the
finger-nails breaking like brittle glass, with the ink drying instantly
on the pen, with the hair fading and falling off, would, if he could,
have exchanged his lot for that of the White Guard. They were in a
frozen endlessness that stretched away to a world where never voice of
man or clip of wing or tread of animal is heard. It is the threshold to
the undiscovered country, to that untouched north whose fields of white
are only furrowed by the giant forces of the elements; on whose frigid
hearthstone no fire is ever lit; where the electric phantoms of a
nightless land pass and repass, and are never still; where the magic
needle points not towards the north but darkly downward; where the sun
never stretches warm hands to him who dares confront the terrors of
eternal snow.

The White Guard slept.

IV

"No, Captain; leave me here and push on to Manitou Mountain. You ought
to make it in two days. I'm just as safe here as on the sleds, and less
trouble. A blind man's no good. I'll have a good rest while you're gone,
and then perhaps my eyes will come out right. My foot's nearly well
now."

Jeff Hyde was snow-blind. The giant of the party had suffered most.

But Hume said in reply: "I won't leave you alone. The dogs can carry you
as they've done for the last ten days."

But Jeff replied: "I'm as safe here as marching, and safer. When the
dogs are not carrying me, nor any one leading me, you can get on faster;
and that means everything to us, now don't it?"

Hume met the eyes of Gaspe Toujours. He read them. Then he said to Jeff:
"It shall be as you wish. Late Carscallen, Cloud-in-the-Sky, and myself
will push on to Manitou Mountain. You and Gaspe Toujours will remain
here."

Jeff Hyde's blind eyes turned towards Gaspe Toujours, who said: "Yes. We
have plenty tabac."

A tent was set up, provisions were put in it, a spirit-lamp and matches
were added, and the simple menage was complete. Not quite. Jaspar Hume
looked round. There was not a tree in sight. He stooped and cut away a
pole that was used for strengthening the runners of the sleds, fastened
it firmly in the ground, and tied to it a red woollen scarf, used for
tightening his white blankets round hi