THE MISTAKE OF CREATION
"Whoa!" Smoke yelled at the dogs, throwing his weight back on the gee-pole to bring the sled to a halt.
"What's eatin' you now?" Shorty complained. "They ain't no water under that footing."
"No; but look at that trail cutting out to the right," Smoke answered. "I thought nobody was wintering in this section."
The dogs, on the moment they stopped, dropped in the snow and began biting out the particles of ice from between their toes. This ice had been water five minutes before. The animals had broken through a skein of ice, snow-powdered, which had hidden the spring water that oozed out of the bank and pooled on top of the three-foot winter crust of Nordbeska River.
"First I heard of anybody up the Nordbeska," Shorty said, staring at the all but obliterated track
