ed through his mind. What if this man was but the forerunner of the whole Chuk

ohnny would stand little show with him

reassuring. Who could he be? As he came close, he dropp

hrusting out his hand. "I was an American soldier, an Eskim

ischarge easily

asy, but

ing the other's hand, "I can give you welco

ulation army shoes as he said the

travel in such a co

gs you nee

feeling that they had met before but where and when he could not recall. He did not mention the fact, but

wo seal oil lamps sputtered in the igloo, but these were for heat, not for light. Johnny got his light in the fo

tally. He had been puzzled by something that had happened five minut

lined with deer skin, and floored with planks hewn from driftwood logs, it was perfect for a dwelling of its kind. It stood

y thought of it now, he put his book aside (a dry, old novel, left h

helter. Reared as he apparently had been in such wilds as these, the native skillfully had sought out the best of game,

had dropped squarely upon the deer skin spread out before him. It had come th

guess. Some kids playing on the cliff. An

bove the igloo? He could not tell. At any rate, there was no use wasting more time on the question. To see farth

ge. The reindeer Chukches, whose sled deer they had borrowed, might be upon them at any moment, and that, Johnny felt sure, would result in an unpleasant mixup. Yet he had been utterly unable to get the little Oriental girl and Iyok-ok to go on. Why? He could only guess. There were a great many other things he could only guess at. The little Oriental girl's reason for going so far

othing of the man who had made them. Everything which might tell tales had been carried on or burned. Once only Johnny had found a scrap of paper. Nothing had been wri

cions that this friendship had existed before they had met on the tundra. However that might have been, they seemed now to be working in unison. Only the day before he had happened to overhear them conversing in low tones, and the language, he would have sworn, was neither Eskimo, English, nor Pidgen. Yet he did not

ain't that I've got a string on 'em, nor them on

had grown up between the three of them, Iyok-ok, the Jap girl and himself. The Jap girl had proved a good sport indeed. She might ha

their igloos at night, a small one for the girl, a larger one for the two men, and, burying t

t her cheerfulness had returned once they had come upon his track again. This had set Johnny speculating once more. Who was this stranger? Was he related to the girl in some way? Was he her friend or her foe

liked his two traveling companions too well for that, and besides, Johnny de

rtable. Johnny grew sleepy. Throwing the ragged old book in the corner, he stretched out ful

his heart. His first conscious thought was that the aperture above him had, in some way, been darkened.

with a shaft of half-inch steel which was driven into a pole three inches in diameter and of indefinite length, it could drive right