A few hours before he had been one of the happiest youths in the world.

Wabi's lovely little sister, he had believed, was safe at Kenegami House; he had bade adieu to his friends at the Post; every minute after that had taken him nearer to that far city in the South, to his mother, and home.

And now so suddenly that he had hardly come to realize the situation he was plunged into what gave promise of being the most thrilling and tragic adventure of his life.

A few weeks more, when spring had come, he would have returned to his friends accompanied by his mother, and they three--Mukoki, Wabigoon and he--would have set out on their romantic quest for the lost gold-mine that had been revealed to them by the ancient skeletons in the old cabin.

Even as these visions were glowing in his brain there had come the interruption, the signal shots on the lake, the return of the dog mail, and now this race to save the life of Minnetaki! In his eagerness he ran ahead of the sledge and urged Mukoki into a faster pace.