A PROVIDENTIAL CHECK 



We stopped on the summit to clear the dogs 

 for the run down the steep slope that leads to the 

 Hebron ice, and as we looked before us we saw a 

 cloud drifting quickly from the north, and lying 

 low upon the wide bay. One driver looked at the 

 other: they shook their heads. " Ajornarmat" (it 

 cannot be helped), they said. 



" What is the matter ? " I asked. 



" See that cloud : that is attuarnek " (the northern 

 storm). 



We held a brief discussion of the situation, and 

 made up our minds to run for shelter. " Jannekunut" 

 | (to John's house), said the men, and they shouted 

 the dogs on to their legs again and we went whizzing 

 down the hill. And all the time there was running 

 iin my mind the phrase out of the Bible, "A little 

 i cloud, no greater than a man's hand." At first sight 

 that little cloud would not have frightened me, but 

 the drivers knew it; and when I looked again after 

 ,the exciting race down to the ice, I saw a heavy 

 grey wall coining tearing along to meet us. In a 

 few minutes it was upon us, and there had begun 

 jone of the most anxious hours that I have ever 

 ;spent. I sat with my back to the wind, for I dared 

 'not face it, and even through my thick sealskin 

 the wind cut bitterly. Each time I turned to look 

 I saw the same sight ; a wall of frozen snow beating 

 against us, a taut line stretching away to where the 

 dogs were lost to sight in the drift, and two plump-, 

 fur-clad, and frosted figures, clinging to the sledge 

 and running with heads down, guiding the sledge 

 with an instinct that did not fail them even in the 

 awful " attuarnek " which swallowed us up and blotted 

 out the landmarks, and drowned every sound in its 



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