NIGHT TRAVEL

BewInD us lay a wide stretch of moonlit, snow-
clad country dappled with trees and the shadows
of trees. Under our feet the trail was hard and
uneven, deeply pitted with holes and grooves where
in warm sunlight a band of Indians had passed over
the melting snow. Rough edges and splinters of
ice dug into the soles of our moccasins and into the
paws of the dogs. But the deep snow on either side
was covered with a thick, hard crust, and in open
places we could leave the trail and take our own
smooth path.

Before us, to the north, rose the huge shoulders
of the hills that. block the winter sun from Tele-
eraph, and as we climbed up their southern slopes
our horizon expanded under the blue-black velvet
of the sky. The clumps of pine and spruce grew
fewer, until at last we came out above timber-line
on to the unbroken whiteness of the summit. Far
to the south, across the shadow-flecked plain, rose
the immense white cone of an old volcano. To
north and east the rounded slopes arched their

glittering backs against a sky in which even the
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