AND KAYAK 75 



shouting " Ah." I ran forward, and found 

 that we had stopped close to a huge boulder 

 about the size of a cottage. Johannes ap- 

 peared from somewhere in the darkness ahead, 

 and said, with a jerk of his thumb towards 

 the boulder, " We ought to be on the other 

 side of that." " Quite so," answered Julius, 

 and swung the nose of the sled around. " Ha- 

 ha-ha," piped Johannes, and the dogs jumped 

 to their feet and went after him round the 

 boulder. I could see very little from my seat 

 at the back of the sled ; even Julius, a few 

 feet in front of me, was no more than a silent 

 shape, a sort of petrified man ; though I knew 

 that he was very wide awake by the sudden 

 lurches and heaves and kicks that he gave 

 when the sled needed turning one way or the 

 other. His eyes were open, too, in spite of 

 the darkness, for now and again he leaped 

 from the sled and hauled it sharply round, to 

 guide the runners over some awkward crack 

 in the ice. Apart from these little outbursts 

 of energy he seemed content to sit still and 

 chew his pipe, with his back to the wind and 

 his feet dangling close to the snow. If I had 

 asked him whether his toes were cold he would 

 have raised his eyebrows in astonishment, 

 and would have said " Cold ? Not I, I am an 

 Eskimo ! " As for myself, my toes were so 



