The boys were growing weary, indeed, when Sandy, considerably in the lead, stopped dead still upon a mound of ice, and let out a cheer like an Indian war whoop.
“There they are! There they are!” his shout was faintly borne to the ears of Dick and Toma.
The two forced their tired legs into a staggering run, which soon brought them up with Sandy.
Below them, snug on the southern slope of a pyramid of glacial drift, were the abandoned igloos.
They had located the second landmark on the trail to Corporal Thalman’s prison!
After locating the six abandoned igloos, the boys were too tired to go on without a rest, and they immediately unharnessed the dogs and pitched their tupiks or tents. They soon were gathered about a tiny camp stove listening to the musical murmurings of a pot of tea.
“Well, so far so good,” said Dick, stretching his legs and lying back comfortably. “If we have no more trouble than this tracing Corporal Thalman’s route the rest of the way, we can pat ourselves on the back.”
“Yes, and we’d better make quick work of it,” Sandy rejoined. “Do you notice how low the sun is getting these days? Pretty soon we’ll begin to have twilight, and that means winter is about with us.”
“You mean the long night,” said Dick. “Well, in a way I hope we get our business done up here before winter sets in, and in a way I don’t.”
“It must be a wonderful experience,” Dick returned, “to live four months without seeing the sun, nothing but the stars and once in a while the moon to give any light. And not even the stars when it’s cloudy. They say it gets so dark during the long night up here that you can pretty near reach out of your igloos and bring in a handful of darkness.”
“That must be awful,” Sandy wagged his head ruefully. “I can’t see what you want to endure all that for. Think of the thermometer going down to 60 degrees below zero, and what if we ran out of food?”
“I guess we could winter up here alright if we had to do it,” Dick returned. “The Eskimos are laying up tons of walrus and seal blubber. Besides, there’s that narwhal, and we’re going to bag a few musk-oxen pretty soon.”
“Me no like um blubber,” Toma spoke up vehemently. “No eat um blubber all winter.”
“I guess you fellows would think blubber was pretty good if there wasn’t anything else to chew on except sealskin boots.”