"_Mon Dieu_, I am afraid of that gun, M'seur.

I will get you out of this if I can.

Will you give me the chance--or will you shoot ?" "I will shoot--if you fail," replied the engineer.
Barely were the words out of his mouth when Croisset sprang to the head of the dogs, seized the leader by his neck-trace and half dragged the team and sledge through the thick bush that edged the trail.

A dozen paces farther on the dense scrub opened into the clearer run of the low-hanging banskian through which Jean started at a slow trot, with Howland a yard behind him, and the huskies following with human-like cleverness in the sinuous twistings of the trail which the Frenchman marked out for them.

They had progressed not more than three hundred yards when there came to them for a third time the hallooing of a voice.
With a sharp "hup, hup," and a low crack of his whip Jean stopped the dogs.
"The Virgin be praised, but that is luck!" he exclaimed.