you think I'm handling it pretty well, Peter dear?"

Peter's reply was smothered against her hooded cheek.

He began to question her more directly now, and with his ability to grasp
at the significance of things he pointed out quickly the tremendous
hazard of their position. There were many more dogs and other sledges at
Blake's place, and it was utterly inconceivable that Blake and Captain
Rydal would permit them to reach Fort Confidence without making every
effort in their power to stop them. Once they succeeded in placing
certain facts in the hands of the Mounted Police, both Rydal and Blake
would be done for. He impressed this uncomfortable truth on Dolores and
suggested that if she could have smuggled a rifle along in the dunnage
sack it would have helped matters considerably. For Rydal and Blake would
not hesitate at shooting. For them it must be either capture or
kill--death for him, anyway, for he was the one factor not wanted in the
equation. He summed up their chances and their danger calmly and
pointedly, as he always looked at troubling things. And Dolores felt her
heart sinking within her. After all, she had not handled the situation
any too well. She almost wished she had killed Rydal herself and called
it self-defense. At least she had been criminally negligent in not
smuggling along a rifle.

"But we'll beat them out," she argued hopefully. "We've got a splendid
team, Peter, and I'll take off my coat and run behind the sledge as much
as I can. Uppy won't dare play a trick on us now, for he knows that if I
should miss him, Wapi would tear the life out of him at a word from me.
We'll win out, Peter dear. See if we don't!"

Peter hugged his thoughts to himself. He did not tell her that Blake and