“That chap had grit,” remarked Mr. MacCreary as he and Doctor Joe left David and Margaret by the bedside and Andy asleep.  “The Angus boys are all gritty fellows.  They’re the sort the Company needs.”

“Yes,” Doctor Joe agreed heartily, “and they never shirk their duty.  Andy is a Boy Scout, and he did what he considered his duty.  Now I must go to the lumber camp and fix up that boss, if he isn’t beyond fixing up.”

With the coming of dawn the wind subsided and the snow ceased to fall.  Eli harnessed his dogs when it was light, and with the lumberman who had been stabbed, but whose injuries were not after all serious, he and Doctor Joe set out for Grampus River.

At the lumber camp they found Lige Sparks, Obadiah Button and Micah Dunk installed as volunteer nurses.  The man had a broken arm, three broken ribs, and had suffered internal injuries that demanded prompt attention.

“If Andy hadn’t come for me, and if I’d been delayed much longer in reaching the camp,” said Doctor Joe later, “the man would have died.  Thanks to the boys, his life will be saved.”

That day and that night Doctor Joe remained with his patient.  On the following morning it became necessary for him to return to The Jug for additional dressings and medicines.  Eli drove him over.

The sky was clear, and the morning was bitterly cold, with rime hanging like a filmy veil in the air and glistening like flakes of silver in the sunshine.  Doctor Joe and Eli ran in turns by the side of the komatik, while the dogs trotted briskly.

“What’s that, now?” asked Eli, pointing to a black object far out on the white field of ice, as they approached The Jug.

“I can’t make out,” said Doctor Joe after a long scrutiny.

“We’ll see,” and Eli turned the dogs toward the object.

“It looks like a flatsled,” said Doctor Joe as they approached.

“’Tis a flatsled,” said Eli. “’Tis the men ran away from the lumber camp.”

A gruesome sight met them as Eli brought the dogs to a stop.  Huddled close and lying by the side of the toboggan, partially covered by drift, were the stiff-frozen bodies of two men.

“They were lost in the storm,” said Eli presently.  “They must have been wanderin’ about till the frost got the best of un.”

Doctor Joe and Eli lifted the remains to the komatik, attaching the toboggan to trail behind, and with their ghastly burden they turned in at The Jug.

Jamie and Peter, vastly concerned for Andy’s safety, met them, and were as vastly relieved when they learned that Andy would be not much the worse for his experience, and that the lumber boss would live.

The two bodies were carried into the wood-shed and laid side by side upon the floor, to remain there until evening, when Doctor Joe and Eli would return them to Grampus River for burial.  It was then that Jamie looked for the first time upon the upturned dead faces, and as he did so he exclaimed, with horror: