Page:London - Son of the Wolf, 1900.djvu/66

 THE MEN OF FORTY-MILE

Big Jim Belden ventured the apparently innocuous proposition that mush-ice was "rather pecooliar," he little dreamed of what it would lead to. Neither did Lon McFane, when he affirmed that anchor-ice was even more so; nor did Bettles, as he instantly disagreed, declaring the very existence of such a form to be a bugaboo.

"An' ye 'd be tellin' me this," cried Lon, "after the years ye 've spint in the land! An' we atin' out the same pot this many 's the day!"

"But the thing 's agin reason," insisted Bettles. "Look you, water's warmer than ice"—

"An' little the difference, once ye break through."

"Still it 's warmer, because it ain't froze. An' you say it freezes on the bottom?"

"Only the anchor-ice, David, only the anchor-ice. An' have ye niver drifted along, the water clear as glass, whin suddin, belike