The Silver Horde

Emerson was boiling with impatience, while Fraser, whose calm nothing disturbed, slept most of the t

enemies. She had eyes mainly for Emerson, and although in her glance there was good-fellowship, in her heart was hot resentment-first at him because he had awakened in her the warm interest she felt for him, and, second, at herself for

ke him?" she a

es." He ground his teeth, and his red eyes flamed, reflecting the sense of injury that seared his brain. "What he don't know about the business, I do, and

giant's frenzy told Cherry that the fight would be an unrelenting one, and again a vague tremor of regr

nd she had enjoyed for months, and with his melting mood came a softening of her own nature, in which she appeared before him gracious and irresistible. Banteringly, and rising out of his elation, he tried to please her, and, in the same spirit that calls the bird to its mate, she responded. It was their last hour together before embarking on his perilous journey in search of the Golden Fleece, and his starved affections clamored for sympathy, while the iron in his blood felt the magnetic prop

rry called Emerson aside, and in a rather tremulous voice begged him again to consider well this enterprise before finally committing himself to it. "If th

brows and the forlorn droop of her lips stayed him. Without thought of consequences, and prompte

answer!" and the next second was at the sled. The dogs

r the wintry sky, a startled, wondering light in her eyes which did not fade until the men were lost to view far up the river trail. Then

s, its slopes agleam with lonely ice-fields. It is a saw-toothed ridge, for the most part narrow, unbroken, and cruel, and the rival winter gales roar over it in a never-ceasing war. On the north lies the Forgotten Land, to the south are the tempered reaches of the Pacific. In summer the stern sweep of rock and tundra is soaked with weeping rains, and given over to the herding caribou or the great grass-eating bear; but when from the polar regions the white hand of winter stretches forth, the grieving seas lift themselves, the rain turns to bitter, hail-burdened hurricanes that charge and retreat in a death-dealing confli

ounding barrens, for it forms a funnel at each end, confining the winds and affording them freer course. Notwithstanding the fact that it had an appalling death-list and was religiously shunned, Emer

Russian village with an unpronounceable name, who, at the price of an extortionate bribe, had agreed to pilot them through. For three days they lay idle

r a careful scrutiny of the peaks, the Indian shook

merson. "Why don't we get unde

ers that floated like vapor from the highest pinnacles. "That's snow, dry s

ie here waiting for an

act

may be

; then, again, it may

t breeze won't

it easy till the right moment comes, and then make a dash. It's thirty miles to the near

swollen tendons that had been galled by his snowshoe thongs, reviling at the fortune that had cast him into such inhospitable surroundings, heaping anathemas upon the head of him who had invented snowshoes

echoes from the walls on either side. At first their progress was rapid, but in time the drifts grew deeper, and they came to bluffs where they were forced to notch footholds, unpack their load and relay it to the top, then free the dogs, and haul the sled up with a rope, hand over hand.

sign. Here and there the dark face of some white-cowled rock or cliff scowled at them, and although they were drenched with sweat and parched from thirst, nowhere was there the faintest tinkle o

ed and began testing the air; Balt also seemed sudd

now?" Emerson

temperature, and they knew that the cold of interstellar space dwelt in that ghostly breath which smote them. Before they were well aware of the ominous significance of these signs the storm was upon them, sweeping through the chute wherein they stood with rapidly increasing violence. The terrible, unseen hand of the Frozen North had unleashed its brood of furies, and the air rang with their hideous cries. It was Dante's third circle of hell let loose-Cerberus baying through his wide,

fingers, and, seizing a loosely folded blanket belonging to the native, snatched it away. The fellow clutched wildly at it, but the cloth sailed ahead of the blast as if on wings, then, dropping to the surface of the snow, opened out, whereupon some twisting current bore it aloft again, and it swooped down the hill like a great bat, followed by a wail of despair from the owner. Other loose articles on the top of the load

ture away out over one of the rival oceans had upset the aerostatic balance,

ts of vision grew shorter and strangely distorted. Although as yet the snows were barely beginning to move, the men knew they would shortly be fo

Emerson, and bell

Roll up in the bedd

is it t

or fifte

out of grub, anyhow, an

d their outfit and allowed themselves to be driven ahead of the storm, trusting to the native's sense

e another for guidance. They were numbed, blinded, choked by the rage of the blizzard; their faces grew stiff, and their lungs froze. At times they fell, and were skidded along ahead of the blasts. This forced them to crawl back again, for they dared not lose their course. At one place they followed a hog-back, where the rocks came to a sharp ridge like the summi

emity, they steeled themselves to suffering, but their tortures were intense, n

o generations of insufficient clothing and inanition, so it was not surprising that as the long afternoon dragged to a close the Aleut guide began to weaken. He paused with more freque

e unable to guide them farther, and Balt, who had once made the trip, took his place, w

hem to leave him, and b

ut Emerson would

yhow," argued

upplemented Fraser, "and we m

hreatened to blot them out. It betrayed them down declivities, up and out of which they had to dig their way. In such descents they were forced to let go the helpless man, whose body rolled ahead of them like a boneless sack; but

ht overtax the powers of the other two, but Balt's strength was that of

ader spurred them on, draining himself in the effort. For the first time Emers

to investigate whether the slope terminated in a drift or a precipice, they flung themselves over. Down they floundered, the two half-insensible men tangled together as if in a race for total oblivion, only to plunge through a thicket of wil

s desperate work groping for dry branches, and they themselves were on the verge of coll

ely refused it to them until shelter was secured. Then he melted snow in Balt's tin cup and poured pints of hot water into t

s tortured body and fighting off their own deadly wearines

rength was unequal to the task, and they were forced to leave the body to the mercy o

wo anchor chains passed over the ridge and made fast to posts well buried in the ground. A globular, quarter-breed Russian trader, with eyes so crossed that

th thanksgiving, was over. As soon as he was able to

ee days ago, bound w

She'll be back in

e coming back. Her cont

on felt himse

and then if it's storming she'll go on t

g will t

ven or ei

! Instead of losing the accursed thing that had hung over him these past three years, it had merely redoubled its hold; that mocking power had held the bait of Tantalus before his eyes, only to hurl him back into hopeless despair; for, figuring with the utmost n

bled with clumsy fingers at his breast, and produced the folded page of a magazine. He held it for a tim

e trader a frost-blackened countenanc

" he said; "we