The panting Berserker strained at the arms about his glistening body, while Captain, with sobbing sighs, relieved his aching lungs and watched his enemy, who frothed at the interference.

“It was George’s fault,” explained Slim to the questions of the arrivals.  “This feller tried to make a get-away, but George had to have his amusement.”

A new-comer addressed the squaw-man in a voice as cold as the wind.  “Cut this out, George!  This is a friend of mine.  You’re making this camp a regular hell for strangers, and now I’m goin’ to tap your little snap.  Cool off—­see?”

Jones’s reputation as a bad gun-man went hand in hand with his name as a good gambler, and his scanty remarks invariably evoked attentive answers, so George explained:  “I don’t like him Jones, and I was jus’ makin’ him over to look like a man.  I’ll do it yet, too,” he flashed wrathfully at his quiet antagonist.

“’Pears to me like he’s took a hand in the remodelling himself,” replied the gambler, “but if you’re lookin’ for something to do, here’s your chance.  Windy Jim just drove in and says Barton and Kid Sullivan are adrift on the ice.”

“What’s that?” questioned eager voices, and, forgetting the recent trouble at the news, the crowd pressed forward anxiously.

“They was crossing the bay and got carried out by the off-shore gale,” explained Jones.  “Windy was follerin’ ’em when the ice ahead parted and begun movin’ out.  He tried to yell to ’em, but they was too far away to hear in the storm.  He managed to get back to the land and follered the shore ice around.  He’s over at Hunter’s cabin now, most dead, face and hands froze pretty bad.”

A torrent of questions followed and many suggestions as to the fate of the men.

“They’ll freeze before they can get ashore,” said one.

“The ice-pack’ll break up in this wind,” added another, “and if they don’t drown, they’ll freeze before the floe comes in close enough for them to land.”

From the first announcement of his friends’ peril, Captain had been thinking rapidly.  His body, sore from his long trip and aching from the hug of his recent encounter, cried woefully for rest, but his voice rose calm and clear: 

“We’ve got to get them off,” he said.  “Who will go with me?  Three is enough.”

The clamouring voices ceased, and the men wheeled at the sound, gazing incredulously at the speaker.  “What!”—­“In this storm?”—­“You’re crazy,” many voices said.

He gazed appealingly at the faces before him.  Brave and adventurous men he knew them to be, jesting with death, and tempered to perils in this land where hardship rises with the dawn, but they shook their ragged heads hopelessly.

“We must save them!” resumed Captain hotly.  “Barton and I played as children together, and if there’s not a man among you who’s got the nerve to follow me—­I’ll go alone by Heavens!”