and over the crusted plains they went,--reindeer could not have caught
them.




CHAPTER XIX

TALES OF THE UNKNOWN WEST


Fire is needful
To him who is come in,
And whose knees are frozen;
Food and raiment
A man requires
Who o'er the fell has travelled.
Ha'vama'l


"I tell you I must go over the track once more. It may have slipped out of my
girdle at some of the places where I tripped."

Alwin's words rose in frosty cloud; for he was Leif's unheated
sleeping-room, drawing on an extra pair of thick woollen stockings in
preparation for his customary outing.

"It is foolishness. Four times already have you been over the ground
without finding it. A long brass-halted knife could not have been
overlooked if it had been there. I tell you that you lost it among the