AY HAD DAWNED COLD AND GRAY WHEN
the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail. He climbed the high
earth-bank where a little-traveled trail led east through the pine forest.
It was a high bank, and he paused to breathe at the top. He excused
the act to himself by looking at his watch. It was nine o’clock in the
morning. There was no sun or promise of sun, although there was not
a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day. However, there seemed to be an
indescribable darkness over the face of things. That was because the sun
was absent from the sky. This fact did not worry the man. He was not
alarmed by the lack of sun. It had been days since he had seen the sun.
The man looked along the way he had come. The Yukon lay a
mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice. On top of this ice were
as many feet of snow. It was all pure white. North and south, as far as
D