Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 18, 1928 — page 128: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

926 Barb looked at him, and he recalled the tender fires he had noticed but the night before, “We made good time and distance to- day,” he ventured as she sat close at his side, But he did not look directly at her. He dared not. ““{ think so, too,” she agreed. ‘I think it’s heaps colder, too, Tad, don’t you? Or is it that we will continue to feel it more the longer we are exposed to it?” ‘It’s colder, Barb,” he said slowly, “a lot colder. Have you suffered from it?” ‘Not exactly. I know it’s cold, all right —but running keeps me warm.” “ When you remove your furs to-night, throw them outside the tent,” he ordered casually. ‘ You see, they get damp inside, and then they freeze. I'll dry them over the fire; you’ll die of pneumonia if I don’t!” ‘““ Goodness—how terrible!” she shud- dered in mock horror, then she slid closer, and Tad admitted to himself a sense of in- finite discomfort and fear. He wanted to put his arm about her, yet the move seemed to him, somehow, unhallowed at the mo- ment, He smoked a good deal, talked of how soon they might expect to reach the claim, and what they might find when they did. Also, he expressed the wish that the sun would warm up enough during the day to soften the snow so that it could crust and freeze into better traveling surface. Suddenly he realized that Barbara How- land had laid her head against his shoulder. He twisted his own head and looked down upon her. In the warmth of the fire she had thrown back her parka, and he saw that she was asleep, her glorious face placid as the sur- face of a mill pond, her even breathing at- testing the healthy weariness that had over- come her. _ With an infinite tenderness he regarded her, sat for a long time, afraid to move for fear of rousing her. Then he knocked the - dottle from his pipe and shook her gently. She opened her eyes. “ You must sleep, Barb,” he said slowly; “don’t forget the furs.” She entered her tent and shortly tossed out the garments. All around the fire the ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. natives were packed inte the snow, their blankets tight about them. The whole world was quiet and vast and impressive. As Tad Raynor dried the smaller gar- ments he handled them with a gentleness that was supreme, his face wreathed in a look of awed glorification. The cold snap held for four days, and the traveling dropped, during that time, in- to the established routine of efficiency. Each of the natives had his appointed tasks, and each of them worked silently and ef- ficiently. The snow whirled under the cavalcade during the daylight hours. At night com- fortable camps were built, and the ravages of the cold and the ever-present enemies of man were kept at bay. ‘You're a wonder, Barb!” Tad Raynor had said a thousand times as they sat to- gether beside the fire at night. “I’m not, at all,” she Jaughed each time. ‘It’s you who have managed things so well, Tad. I never suffer any discomfort. I have learned to trot all day without a great deal of weariness; it’s the glorious air, I think. Anyway, one has to run or freeze as solid as ice!” Not a single thing had they seen but the occasional birds and once a slinking wolf, Not a trace of mankind appeared on the white reaches of snow, no sound but the noises they made themselves, the infrequent howl of wolves, the flutter of a ptarmigan as it raced away from them. They struck camp the morning of the fifth day while the night still enshrouded them. Only a trace of gray showed while they were stowing the sleds. This length- ened into the semi-gloom of Alaska day as they ate their breakfast. The pines loomed through the murk like huge beings who were creeping close to them. Tad Raynor was lashing the last of the utensils to the rear sled and Barb stood at his side ready to start as day dawned. Vis- ibility rose and the girl suddenly uttered a low cry and caught at Tad’s arm. There was terror in the cry, and wes man whirled toward her. Speechless, she pointed across the little | clearing where they had camped. What he saw was unmistakable. és Gomichbooks (Eo) Waa ee WChY Ree ON ee eee)