"There is a mistake, Croisset.

I am not the man they want to kill!" Croisset was smiling at him again.
"Smoke--and think, M'seur.

It is impossible for me to tell you why you should be dead--but you ought to know, unless your memory is shorter than a child's." He went to the dogs, stirring them up with the cracking of his whip, and when Howland turned to look back he saw a bright flare of light where the other sledge had stopped.

A man's voice came from the farther gloom, calling to Croisset in French.
"He tells me I am to take you on alone," said Croisset, after he had replied to the words spoken in a patois which Howland could not understand.

"They will join us again very soon." "They!" exclaimed Howland.