‘Don’t,—­Mason,’ entreated Malemute Kid; ’the poor devil’s on its last legs.  Wait and we’ll put my team on.’  Mason deliberately withheld the whip till the last word had fallen, then out flashed the long lash, completely curling about the offending creature’s body.

Carmen—­for it was Carmen—­cowered in the snow, cried piteously, then rolled over on her side.

It was a tragic moment, a pitiful incident of the trail—­a dying dog, two comrades in anger.

Ruth glanced solicitously from man to man.  But Malemute Kid restrained himself, though there was a world of reproach in his eyes, and, bending over the dog, cut the traces.  No word was spoken.  The teams were doublespanned and the difficulty overcome; the sleds were under way again, the dying dog dragging herself along in the rear.  As long as an animal can travel, it is not shot, and this last chance is accorded it—­the crawling into camp, if it can, in the hope of a moose being killed.

Already penitent for his angry action, but too stubborn to make amends, Mason toiled on at the head of the cavalcade, little dreaming that danger hovered in the air.  The timber clustered thick in the sheltered bottom, and through this they threaded their way.  Fifty feet or more from the trail towered a lofty pine.  For generations it had stood there, and for generations destiny had had this one end in view—­perhaps the same had been decreed of Mason.

He stooped to fasten the loosened thong of his moccasin.  The sleds came to a halt, and the dogs lay down in the snow without a whimper.  The stillness was weird; not a breath rustled the frost-encrusted forest; the cold and silence of outer space had chilled the heart and smote the trembling lips of nature.  A sigh pulsed through the air—­they did not seem to actually hear it, but rather felt it, like the premonition of movement in a motionless void.  Then the great tree, burdened with its weight of years and snow, played its last part in the tragedy of life.  He heard the warning crash and attempted to spring up but, almost erect, caught the blow squarely on the shoulder.

The sudden danger, the quick death—­how often had Malemute Kid faced it!  The pine needles were still quivering as he gave his commands and sprang into action.  Nor did the Indian girl faint or raise her voice in idle wailing, as might many of her white sisters.  At his order, she threw her weight on the end of a quickly extemporized handspike, easing the pressure and listening to her husband’s groans, while Malemute Kid attacked the tree with his ax.  The steel rang merrily as it bit into the frozen trunk, each stroke being accompanied by a forced, audible respiration, the ‘Huh!’ ‘Huh!’ of the woodsman.