Page:Lost with Lieutenant Pike (1919).djvu/233

 "Had none for two days, sir. We were thinking of biling a deer-hide for our supper."

"You're no worse off than the others. The whole column is destitute again, but the men are struggling bravely, scattered as they may be. The doctor and Brown came this way. You haven't sighted them?"

"No, sir; only their tracks, back a piece."

"Then they got out, somehow. We must find their trail before dark, and follow it up top, where there's game. Search well; our comrades behind are depending on us."

They searched on both sides of the canyon. Stub's Indian-wise eyes made the discovery—a few scratches by hands and gun-stocks, in a narrow ravine whose slopes were ice sheeted. That was the place.

They all hurried to the sledges, took what they might carry, and clawing, slipping, clinging, commenced to scale the ravine. It was a slow trail, and a danger trail, but it led them out, to a flat, cedar-strewn top, where daylight still lingered.

"The doctor and Brown have been here," panted the lieutenant. "Here are their tracks."

They followed the tracks a short distance, and brought up at camp sign. Evidently the doctor and Brown had stopped here, the night before; had killed