moment. Perhaps some dark secret was locked in his crafty brain, a
secret which the world should know and which would die if he died.
Johnny could only guess this, but whatever might be the reason he must
not at this moment kill the man whom he suspected of twice attempting
his life. So he fled.

By the last flickering flames of the grand spree that had burned, Johnny
figured out his approximate location and began once more his three miles
east, one mile south journey to Cape Prince of Wales. Some hours later,
having landed safely at the Cape, and having displayed the postmarked
one dollar bill to the post mistress and given it to her in exchange for
a sumptuous meal of reindeer meat, hot biscuits and doughnuts, he
started sleeping the clock round in a room that had been arranged for
the benefit of weary travelers.




CHAPTER XII

"GET THAT MAN"


The trip from Cape Prince of Wales to Nome was fraught with many
dangers. Already the spring thaw had begun. Had not the Eskimo whom
Johnny employed to take him to the Arctic metropolis with his dog team
been a marvel at skirting rotten ice and water holes in Port Clarence
Bay, at swimming the floods on Tissure River, and at canoeing across the
flooded Sinrock, Johnny might never have reached his journey's end.