AND KAYAK 111 



straightened their traces without stopping the 

 sled. I had heard tell of this feat, and so was 

 very much interested when he set about it ; 

 but I thought it a very risky piece of acrobatic 

 work. He pulled the team back close to the 

 sled, so as to get the frozen knot in the hauling 

 line within reach of his teeth. The dogs, of 

 course, thought they were going to be thrashed, 

 and tugged and galloped most frantically, so 

 that the man had hard work to hold them. 



We should have been in a pretty plight if 

 they had got away, for they would have turned 

 in their tracks and gone back to Nain, and we 

 should have been left to walk. However, 

 Julius tied the line to one leg and chewed 

 the knot loose ; then he slipped the traces 

 off one by one and looped them over his 

 other leg, so that all through the performance 

 it was a case of seventeen dogs harnessed to 

 Julius's legs, while he sat tight and made the 

 sled come along with him. I was glad when 

 the risky business was over. 



All day long I sat with my back to the wind, 

 while the sled jolted on, and I wondered how- 

 ever the drivers were finding the way. Each 

 time that I turned my head to look I was met 

 by the same blinding, driving snow ; and it 

 was not until evening that I got any inkling 

 of our whereabouts. 



