“What is he saying?” Dick asked Constable Sloan.
“He means that here is good hunting, and that he ought to tell his people about it. The Eskimos depend altogether for their food upon hunting, and when there’s game and good weather they consider it the same as sacrilege to procrastinate. They can’t figure out why a white man wastes his time doing anything else.”
The first signs of the coming storm interrupted Constable Sloan. A fine hard sleet came sifting down out of the leaden sky, cutting their faces like hundreds of tiny knives.
Reaching a large drift that appeared ideal for making igloo blocks, Constable Sloan called a halt, and everyone set to work cutting snow blocks with the long knives brought along for that purpose.
By the time they had completed two igloos, a wind had sprung up and the sleet had thickened. Though the huge glacial ridge shielded them from the full force of the wind, still it shipped and whirled with such force that they had to seek the shelter of their lately built snow houses.
“I hope McCarthy doesn’t get caught out in this blizzard,” said Constable Sloan when they were squatted about a camp stove, crowded into one igloo for added warmth. “He ought to be coming in any time now.”
They were in considerable suspense for several minutes, until, outside, above the howling of the wind, they heard Corporal McCarthy’s booming shout. Constable Sloan hurried out and helped into the igloo an almost unrecognizable figure. The Corporal was covered with clinging ice from head to foot and resembled some gigantic snow man.
“Well, Mistak didn’t show himself if he really was in hiding on the glacier,” reported the Corporal. “The storm drove me in or I’d have waited longer. Tomorrow, if the storm lulls, we’ll look again. The trouble is all traces of his sledge will be covered up by this storm.”
“We’d better establish a base of supplies here,” advised Constable Sloan. “The boys can do some hunting to help out on the meat problem, while we comb the island for Mistak.”
Sandy’s face took on a disappointed expression at this announcement, and he looked at Dick as if he wanted him to do something. But Dick shook his head, and presently whispered mysteriously: