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 Stub. "He's been wantin' to open it up, I heard tell; but mebbe that yaller hoss saved him the trouble."

"He'll not thank the hoss," laughed Terry, grimly. "He'd like to have done the job himself! That's the doctor of it."

Stub privately resolved to show the doctor that there was no need of the "job," now. He felt fine, and he was Jack Pursley.

Nothing occurred during the night; the false prairie of the big pocket remained uninvaded except by themselves. They lingered until about ten o'clock, hoping that the main party might come in.

"No use," sighed Freegift. "We may be losin' time; like as not losin' the doctor. Our orders were, to travel by river till we joined the cap'n."

With one last survey the two men took up their tow-ropes and, Stub ready to lend a hand when needed, they plodded on.

The tracks of the doctor and John Brown led to the gateway before. The space for the river lessened rapidly. Soon the sides were only prodigious cliffs, straight up and down where they faced upon the river, and hung with gigantic icicles and sheeted with ice masses. The river had dashed from one side to the other, so that the boulders were now spattered with frozen spray.