the other, and he would win without theft. Quickly he threw his pack
over his shoulder and struck the trail made by Deane in his flight. On
his snow-shoes he followed it in a long, swift pace. A hundred yards
from the camp he looked back for an instant. Then he turned, and his
face was grim and set.

"If you've got to be caught, it's not going to be by that outfit back
there, Mr. Scottie Deane," he said to himself. "It's up to yours
truly, and Billy MacVeigh is the man who can do the trick, if he
hasn't got a gun!"

V

BILLY FOLLOWS ISOBEL

From the first Billy could see the difficulty with which Deane and his
dogs had made their way through the soft drifts of snow piled up by
the blizzard. In places where the trees had thinned out Deane had
floundered ahead and pulled with the team. Only once in the first mile
had Isobel climbed from the sledge, and that was where traces,
toboggan, and team had all become mixed up in the snow-covered top of
a fallen tree. The fact that Deane was compelling his wife to ride
added to Billy's liking for the man. It was probable that Isobel had
not gone to sleep at all after her hard experience on the Barren, but
had lain awake planning with her husband until the hour of their
flight. If Isobel had been able to travel on snow-shoes Billy reasoned
that Deane would have left the dogs behind, for in the deep, soft snow
he could have made better time without them, and snow-shoe trails
would have been obliterated by the storm hours ago. As it was, he
could not lose them. He knew that he had no time to lose if he made