The Purple Flame

arian stopped her reindeer, gazed abo

camp

Patsy. "Won'

you sit down on a sled until I unpack this one. Aft

ow, and wood brought on the sled, she kindled a fire. They had no shelter, but the glow of the fire cheered Patsy immea

he snow from above the soft, dry tundra moss. Over this cleared space she spread a square of canvas. Then,

No need to pull down the shades. We'll get

en, seeing her take off first her macki

ached the proper stage of dis

rust her feet into the sleeping bag,

best together. It's just big enough for

er they burrowed their way into the depths of the

ound an arm about her cousin's neck

hispered again fi

bag is made of the long haired winter skins of reindeer. The hair is a solid mat more than an inch thick. The skin keeps out t

ldn't be a bit of use writing that to my

hey wo

all conscious of the bonds of human affection which the vast silence of the white wilderness was even now weaving about them. Bonds

l this, Patsy snuggled a bi

s is going t

so," Maria

really herd t

hree Eskimo herders with us, and Attatak, a girl who cooks for them. They do mos

e past that don't fit now. In their old village life of hunting and fishing, it was an unwrit

e two Eskimo villages thirty miles away. If there were no white people about, our good-hearted herders would share our supplies with the villagers as often as they came around. Before the winter was half through the

ive like this?

ear. In a month we will move into the most interesting hous

aches in her legs. "I think it's going to be grand, if only I ge

u will-in les

ul lot. We swim and row, ride horseback, play tennis and basket-ball, and go on hikes. B

good-night hug, she closed he

flame. What was it? What had caused it? Who were the persons back there in the old dre

and rivers about Nome. The bed of the Sinrock River was known to run fairly rich in gold. Someone had imagined that he might become rich by dredging the mud at the bottom of the river and washing it for gold. The scheme had failed. Doubtle

ian had seen before. "Almost like

busied her mind with more practical problems. If these makers of the purple flame were to remain long at the dredge, how w

ld dredge. "And when we move into winter quarters it will be five miles nearer. Oh, well!" she sighed,

hat about the purple flame? Why have the

when the first streaks of dawn were casti

d of heavy breathing caused her to turn her head. To her surprise she saw Patsy, clothed only in those garments that had s

ve quite recovere

ughed in turn, as she dropped down upon t

ating; good as a cold plunge in the

lapjacks and

med Patsy, redoubling her ef

le to the very roots of her hair and, in spite of the Arctic c

ills. Over those hills they had been passing when darkness fell. Now, as Marian crept into the sleeping bag, she saw the nearer hills rising like cathedral domes above her. She heard the ceaseless rustle o

exclaimed. Then, a m

tning in the Arctic, and on such a night as this. Twent

cobweb of dreams that had been forming there

the sleeping bag. Donning her fur parka and drawing on knickers and deerski

in the name of all that's good, I'm going to come

the crest, a half mile from her camp, she dropped on hands and knees and crawled forward a hundred yards. Th

length, now a foot, now two feet, darted out of space, then receded, then flared up again. T

r knees trembled, and open-mouthed, without the po

with a half audible exclamation of d

was so like the snow and the sky

discovery she was able to make out the outlines of th

ckering and distorted was this image, that it seemed more the shadow of a ghost than of a human being. A second shadow joine

light flared up. Then

y cast no shadows. Are they all men? Or, are there some women? How many are there

who dogged the tracks of reindeer herds like camp followers, an

s winter by two inexperienced girls. Perhaps they think we will be easy. Perh

to her camp and crept shiv

erplexing problems that lay before her too serious to permit of that. She was glad enough w

our own camp. There is comfort in tha

eing no movement there, she began to search

feeble flame soon grew to a bright red, and in a little while the c