Then until day broke he sat pondering the situation.

There was nothing he could do, and he decided at length to return at once to Abel Zachariah's, and report the calamity.
When he emerged again from the _igloo_ the last breath of the storm had ceased to blow and a dead calm prevailed.

He loaded the _komatik_, and calling the dogs from beneath their coverlets of snow, harnessed them, and without delay set out for the head of Abel's Bay.
It was long after dark when the dogs, straining at their traces and yelping, rushed in through the ice hummocks below Abel's cabin.

The cabin was dark, but a light flashed in the window as the sledge ascended the incline.

Abel and Mrs.Abel had heard the approach, and when the sledge came to a stop before the door they were there to give welcome and greetings.
"Where is Bobby?
And where is Jimmy ?" asked Abel.