He laughed and shook the vision from his eyes, descended to the
level, and crossed the flat to camp. Five minutes after he had
rolled up in his robe, he opened his eyes and sat up, amazed that
he was not already asleep. He glanced at the Indian sleeping
beside him, at the embers of the dying fire, at the five dogs
beyond, with their wolf's brushes curled over their noses, and at
the four snowshoes standing upright in the snow.

"It's sure hell the way that hunch works on me" he murmured.
His mind reverted to the poker game. "Four kings!" He grinned
reminiscently. "That WAS a hunch!"

He lay down again, pulled the edge of the robe around his neck
and over his ear-flaps, closed his eyes, and this time fell
asleep.



CHAPTER V

At Sixty Mile they restocked provisions, added a few pounds of
letters to their load, and held steadily on. From Forty Mile
they had had unbroken trail, and they could look forward only to
unbroken trail clear to Dyea. Daylight stood it magnificently,
but the killing pace was beginning to tell on Kama. His pride
kept his mouth shut, but the result of the chilling of his lungs
in the cold snap could not be concealed. Microscopically small
had been the edges of the lung-tissue touched by the frost, but
they now began to slough off, giving rise to a dry, hacking
cough. Any unusually severe exertion precipitated spells of