Success and Failure 



the one he had shot into the light. It was a superb 

 animal, thin, supple, strong, with a coat of frosty 

 fur, very long and fine. Rea began at once to skin 

 it, remarking that he hoped to find other pelts in the 

 morning. 



Though the wolves remained in the vicinity of 

 camp, none ventured near. The dogs moaned and 

 whined; their restlessness increased as dawn ap 

 proached, and when the gray light came, Jones found 

 that some of them had been badly lacerated by the 

 fangs of the wolves. Rea hunted for dead wolves 

 and found not so much as a piece of white fur. 



Soon the hunters were speeding southward. Other 

 than a disposition to fight among themselves, the 

 dogs showed no evil effects of the attack. They 

 were lashed to their best speed, for Rea said the 

 white rangers of the north would never quit their 

 trail. All day the men listened for the wild, lone 

 some, haunting mourn. But it came not. 



A wonderful halo of white and gold, that Rea 

 called a sun-dog, hung in the sky all afternoon, and 

 dazzlingly bright over the dazzling world of snow, 

 circled and glowed a mocking sun, brother of the 

 desert mirage, beautiful illusion, smiling cold out of 

 the polar blue. 



The first pale evening star twinkled in the east 

 when the hunters made camp on the shore of Artil- 



181 



