Part 25 (1/2)

XXI

THE RIFLED CACHE

The cold of February, intense, searching, deadly, tightened its grip upon the wilderness, sapping the life of the three struggling hue felt hiht their way, now hopefully, now despondently, but ever with slower pace, as strength ebbed, toward the precious cache on the shores of the Great Lake; and with the slower progress that groeakness demanded, it was quickly found necessary to reduce by half the already minute portion of dried caribouin the world save only themselves seemed to have been frozen into oblivion There was no sound, save the monotonous swish, swish of their own snowshoes, to disturb the silence--a silence otherwise as absolute and vast as the utterrave

Storms overtook them, but they mercifully were storms of short duration, and seldoling forward, they forced their way painfully on and on, over pitiless ept ridges, across life-sapping, desolate barrens, through scarcely less inhospitable forests Exerting their waning strength to its utmost, they never stopped, save when exhausted nature compelled them to halt for brief intervals of sleep and rest, to recuperate their wasted energies

Shad Trowbridge cauely if he were not dead, this another existence, and be dooes over endless reaches of snow To his nu for ue, pleasant drea experienced in a previous life, he reht farther back, and the dear old college What would the fellows say now, if they were to see him--the felloho had known him in that former, happier life?

At other ti in the distance, and he would answer in glad, expectant shouts But there never came a reply

The first tily at hih eyes sunk deep in their sockets When it was repeated later--and he came to hear the voices and to shout to the empty snoastes at least once every day--she would step to his side, solicitously touch his shoulder and say:

”The friend of White Brother of the Snow hears the voices of the Matchi Manitu of Hunger Let hi him”

Mookoomahn's face was not pleasant to see now; it was horrible--the dark skin was drawn tight over the high cheek bones, the lips shrunken to the gums, and the eyes fallen far back into the skull His face rese else the shed sohastly face, fra black hair; at other ti pity for Mookooht tears to his eyes But tears froze, and were annoying and painful

Manikawan, too, had changed woefully The lean, gaunt figure stalking along uncoly with Shad and Mookoo Manikawan that bade Bob and Shad be patient in their imprisonment on the island until she returned to relieve the, happy Manikawan that accompanied Shad and the others to the river tilt after she had accoh there still burned within her an unquenchable fire of energy, and she never lagged on the trail, she was no longer the Manikawan of old

In spite of all the hardshi+ps and all the pain, and slowly starving as she was, she never ceased her attention to Shad, and she never once lost her patience with hihed hysterically and derisively at his fate, as he did sohtly with her hand, and say in the same old voice, lower than of old, but even more musical and sweet:

”The friend of White Brother of the Snow is brave He is not a coward

He is not afraid to die”

This always had a h he never learned to interpret her language, the touch of the hand, the huht in the eyes that looked into his, never failed to recall him to his manhood and to himself, and to the remembrance of his vow that as a white man he must by mere force of will prove his superiority

All record of ti with each sunrise and sunset, and when the wind did not blow to freeze them, and the snow did not drift to blind theave forth a hint--just a hint--of warmth

One day the dead silence was suddenly startled by the long-drawn-out howl of a wolf It was a blood-curdling and alonised cry of a lost soul in the depths of eternal tor, Shad discovered the ani leisurely after the of fellowshi+p--of pity--welled up in his boso the red tongue, its lean sides, and ugly fangs, he beca of revulsion toward it Then he fancied it the e an opportunity to destroy the, intense hatred of the thing Finally it attained the proportions of a ly he watched for ahis rifle froan he dropped upon a knee, aied firing pin did not respond, and the wolf, see to understand its peril, slunk away unharray sides so lank that they seelyeyes His hatred for the creature becaain presently, persistently following, but now keeping at a respectful distance

On the third day, however, the wolf had forgotten its temporary timidity, and with increased boldness stole steadily upon their heels

With a patience quite foreign to hi no demonstration until the wolf, apparently satisfied that it had little to fear froer-stricken plodders, trotted boldly up and took a place behind them, so near that if the rifle failed at the first snap there would be opportunity for a second atteain stopped, and seizing the rifle discovered that the beast had also stopped and stood glaring at hi their weakness, it had lost respect for their power to injure it

A ain, aier This tiht he beheld the carcass of the tantalising creature stretched upon the snow

[Illustration: Shooting the wolf]