trips Stark Naked in the Wind in Pursuit of a Des

on of this rescue on his mother's anxious love and sagacity. She would leave nothing to the indifferen

d this many times as the gray day drew on and began t

e peak against the drab of the sky in the southwest; and the ragged line of cliffs running south and

when the misty white circle of the sun was dropping low, the boy gave up hope, without yielding altogether to despair. There woul

which Schooner Bay ice had been split in the break-up. These lesser, lighter pans moved faster than the greater ones; and the wind from the nort

ttention. It had broken from the field on which they were marooned and was under way on a diagonal across a

area of about four hundred square feet; yet it would serve. It was not more than fifteen fathoms distant. Billy could swim that far-he w

jump

this pan," said he,

u a noti

er by means of which the dogs had drawn the komatik, a strip to a dog; and he began to knot them t

tain the other. Billy pointed out a ridge of ice against which Teddy Brisk could brace his sound leg. They would pull, then-each against the other; and presently the little pan would approach an

that; the light was failing too-flickering out like a ca

iscovered the interva

one with the dog

lly coaxed; "bu

direction of the dogs towards Billy. At once the dogs att

n," Billy scolded, "we'll

t confronted the boy was an immediate

o!" the bo

come

ripple, Billy. He'll turn a

change

per here?"

is,

n' orders or

as immediate. The bo

sir," s

stan

!"-a sob

leted his preparations before he began to strip. He lashed the end of t

was not to lose courage; he was to feint and scold; he was to let no shadow of fear cross his face-no tremor of fear must touch his voice; he was not to yield

and "Aye, sir!" and "Very well, si

ack-that if the worst came to the worst, and he could manage to do so, he would jerk the lad into the wat

s in the midst of the boy's dogskin robes, tied the end of the s

owns-" the

" Billy Topsail roar

to the water