“Stop!”

She almost shrieked the one word of warning, and with it a second shot burned its way through the flesh of Blake’s shoulder and he went down.  The revolver turned on Uppy, and instantly he was electrified into life.  Thirty seconds later, at the head of the team, he was leading the way out into the chaotic gloom of the night.  Hovering over Peter, riding with her hand on the gee-bar of the sledge, Dolores looked back to see Blake staggering to his feet.  He shouted after them, and what he said was in Uppy’s tongue.  And this time she could not stop him.

She had forgotten Wapi.  But as the night swallowed them up, she still looked back, and through the gloom she saw a shadow coming swiftly.  In a few moments Wapi was running at the tail of the sledge.  Then she leaned over Peter and encircled his shoulders with her furry arms.

“We’re off!” she cried, a breaking note of gladness in her voice.  “We’re off!  And, Peter dear, wasn’t it perfectly thrilling!”

A few minutes later she called upon Uppy to stop the team.  Then she faced him, close to Peter, with the revolver in her hand.

“Uppy,” she demanded, speaking slowly and distinctly, “what was it Blake said to you?”

For a moment Uppy made as if to feign stupidity.  The revolver covered a spot half-way between his narrow-slit eyes.

“I shall shoot—­”

Uppy gave a choking gasp.  “He said—­no take trail For’ Con’dence—­go wrong—­he come soon get you.”

“Yes, he said just that.”  She picked her words even more slowly.  “Uppy, listen to me.  If you let them come up with us—­unless you get us to Fort Confidence—­I will kill you.  Do you understand?”

She poked her revolver a foot nearer, and Uppy nodded emphatically.  She smiled.  It was almost funny to see Uppy’s understanding liven up at the point of the gun, and she felt a thrill that tingled to her finger-tips.  The little devils of adventure were wide-awake in her, and, smiling at Uppy, she told him to hold up the end of his driving whip.  He obeyed.  The revolver flashed, and a muffled yell came from him as he felt the shock of the bullet as it struck fairly against the butt of his whip.  In the same instant there came a snarling deep-throated growl from Wapi.  From the sledge Peter gave a cry of warning.  Uppy shrank back, and Dolores cried out sharply and put herself swiftly between Wapi and the Eskimo.  The huge dog, ready to spring, slunk back to the end of the sledge at the command of her voice.  She patted his big head before she got on the sledge behind Peter.

There was no indecision in the manner of Uppy’S going now.  He struck out swift and straight for the pale constellation of stars that hung over Fort Confidence.  It was splendid traveling.  The surface of the arctic plain was frozen solid.  What little wind there was came from behind them, and the dogs were big and fresh.  Uppy ran briskly, snapping the lash of his whip and la-looing to the