This time when he wakened Rod made no further effort to sleep. It was
only a little past midnight. His companions had obtained four hours of
rest. In another hour he would arouse them. Quietly he began making
preparations for breakfast, and fed the dogs. At half-past one o'clock
he shook Wabigoon by the shoulder.

"Get up!" he cried, as the Indian youth sat erect. "It's time to go!"

He tried to suppress his nervousness when Mukoki and Wabi joined him
beside the fire. He determined not to let them know of his visions,
for there was gloom enough among them as it was. But he would hurry.
He was the first to get through with breakfast, the first to set to
work among the dogs, and when Mukoki started out at the head of the
team through the forest he was close beside him, urging him to greater
speed by his own endeavors.

"How far are we from the camp, Mukoki?" he asked.

"Four hour--twent' mile," replied the old pathfinder.

"Twenty miles. We ought to make it by dawn."

Mukoki made no answer, but quickened his pace as the cedar and balsam
forest gave place to an open plain which stretched for a mile or two
ahead of them. For an hour longer the moon continued to light up the
wilderness; then, with its descent lower and lower into the west, the
gloom began to thicken, until only the stars were left to guide the
pursuers. Even these were beginning to fade when Mukoki halted the
panting team on the summit of a mountainous ridge, and pointed into