OUR GUIDE 



rocked and heaved with the force of the waves, and 

 here and there the water came swilling over. In 

 front was a racing sledge, with Johannes sitting on 

 it and yelling " Hu-it (go on), hu-it, hu-it " to his 

 dogs ; and our teams were following at safe inter- 

 vals, galloping as fast as their feet would carry them. 

 " Sit tight, sit tight," said the drivers ; and there we 

 sat, bowling along over the heaving ice. Sometimes 

 one of the men pushed out a leg to guide the sledge 

 round a bend or to check it where it seemed likely to 

 slip sideways : they said nothing ; just sat there and 

 chewed at their pipes, and left the dogs to follow the 

 voice that shouted unceasingly in front. At the 

 place where the guide led us on to the headland the 

 ice was broken away from the rock, and was rising 

 and falling with the swell. One moment it came 

 groaning up to the level of the land ; the next it 

 sank away and left a leap of several feet. The dogs 

 went scrambling over, glad to get on to something 

 firm ; but the drivers held the sledge back until the 

 ice began to rise, and then with a yell they started 

 the dogs again and bumped across the crack just as 

 it came up level. A second too soon or too late 

 would have meant smashing the front of the sledge 

 to splinters ; and as we drew on to the land I looked 

 back and saw the ice dipping again behind us, and 

 my companion's dogs coming on to take their 

 turn. 



Johannes looked over his shoulder to see that we 

 were safe, and then started on foot, ahead of his dogs, 

 to show the track. It seemed a long way over the 

 headland, uphill and down, and always through soft 

 snow ; and all the morning that little man trotted on, 

 knee deep in snow, lifting his feet high to run the 



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