All too soon the brief summer waned, and their hopes waned with it. While they hesitated, the heavy sea ice pressed in nearer the coast and cut off any possible chance of a ship. The ducks flew away, the river froze over, and there was mush ice all along the coast where the pack had not frozen to the shore. The cold was coming on exceptionally early, and they were much dejected over the prospect. The wind blew keen from the north, and snow whitened the once blooming tundra. The winter was upon them before they knew it, so rapidly does it come in that land of ice.
In the midst of this trouble Harluk came to them with a face of good news.
“My brothers,” he said, “good luck is surely coming to us. The dogs have come back.”
Eight or ten gaunt dogs were eagerly snatching at food that the Eskimos threw to them; then, their hunger satisfied, they allowed themselves to be tied up, and lay down by the topek doors in contentment.
The Eskimo dog grows very fond of the people with whom he is brought up, and never forgets them, no matter how long separated. Thus, though he runs away and sometimes roams wild over the tundra for months, he is almost sure finally to find his way back to the friends of his puppyhood. It was what had now happened.
Some hours afterward Joe found Harry gazing moodily at the icy sea with tears in his eyes. It was not the cutting wind that had put them there and Joe knew it. He laid his hand gently on his friend’s shoulder.
“Cheer up, old fellow,” he said, trying to smile and making hard work of it. “Cheer up, the worst is yet to come.”
“I should say the worst was here,” replied Harry dejectedly. “It’s almost winter again and we are farther from home than ever. We haven’t any ship for a refuge this time, either.”
“I know it,” said Joe, “and we’ve got to get out of this right now. We’ll have to leave our bone behind, but that has been safe there a good many years, and I guess it will stay one more. At any rate, we’ll risk it. What do you say, old chap, if we go south?”
“What do you say if we have a little excursion to the moon?” said Harry bitterly; “the one seems as likely as the other.”