Wabi held out his hand and the two gripped heartily.

“And Minnetaki will be here then—­I swear it!” said the Indian youth, laughing.

Rod blushed.

And that night alone he slipped quietly out into the still, white night; and he looked, longingly, far into the southeast where he had found the footprint in the snow; and he turned to the north, and the east, and the west, and lastly to the south, and his eyes seemed to travel through the distance of a thousand miles to where a home and a mother lay sleeping in a great city.  And as he turned back to the House of Wabinosh, where all the lights were out, he spoke softly to himself: 

“It’s home—­to-morrow!”

And then he added: 

“But you bet I’ll be back by the time the ice breaks up!”

THE END