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Ji, too"

"Eventually we reckoned we had to check it out," Merritt went on "I took the rifle, and ent over to the spot in the trees where it had been standing for hours, only e got there, the asn’t there--"

"Vanished deeper into the woods," Jiht be more to the story

"So you followed it?" Jack asked His fingers were still stiff and painful, and his feet still felt like slabs of frozen beef The cold had gotten down deep inside of him, and no et war of the sort," Merritt gruave a murmur of dissatisfaction and stared at Jack "When I say the asn’t there, that’s precisely what I n of the wolf at all, as if…"

He trailed off

Ji his glasses with the edge of his sleeve

"Then how did you findcloser to the stove even as he stared at the flecks of gold and green in Merritt’s eyes

"A shadow in the forest, that’s all," the big man replied "Ji but its eyes and its shadow It kept ahead of us, pausing to e fell behind It wasn’t long before it led us right to you Whenall that blood, and the rabbits and such all torn up, ere sure you’d been ot up and dusted off the seat of his pants "There’d been ne It covered the tracks The wolf led us to you" He turned his back and walked away

Jack and Merritt exchanged a glance, but they didn’t talk any more about it Neither of them had any desire to do so

The weeks passed, and Jack’s rescue see point in their fortunes Their supplies still dwindled to al trips were more often successful than not And several tione days without fresh meat, one of the men found a wounded rabbit or squirrel so a bloody trail in the snow as it crawled away froh, and the cold no longer felt as though it ate at his bones, he resumed his daily walk This time, however, he did not wander from careat confusion, and awatched had significantly abated, existing on the periphery of his mind If the wolf--the creature he had couide--was still with hin to show itself or to make itself known in any other way From time to tinition They were ordinary wolves trying to survive the white silence, no different from Jack, Merritt, and Jim

Some days he walked up to the spot where his friends had discovered him--the patch of snow-covered earth where Jack felt certain he had actually died, if only for a handful of minutes Yet no trace re since blanked out the bright crie up a dead rabbit, hare, or wolverine by dragging his boots through the snow, he never came up with even a bone Merritt and Jim had been far too superstitious to eat any of the meat on those animals, so Jack knew that his companions had not removed the carcasses Yet the spot seemed untouched, somehow cleansed If the others had not discovered him there and seen the dead ani winter had taken a terrible toll on his mind

When first weeks and then months had elapsed since that day, his routine had become little more than exercise He h as their supplies had decreased, they had all groeaker Now, on the day they had gauged as the first of April, he could move his teeth, loosened by scurvy, around in his lad He wouldn’t have liked to see his own reflection if his features were as gaunt and his gu ned and the snow and ice , the sun ever shining brightly, the river ever flowing again The past feeeks had brought visitors to the cabin, drawn by the s to travel far afield from their own camps now that the cold did not bite as deeply and their own supplies had run low Trappers and prospectors and even Indians paid visits, hoping for a bit of anything they had run out of themselves The best Jack and his friends could offer was a cup of weak tea and good conversation, but surprisingly that seeold fever and the wilderness life, caaled theabond, they repaid him in kind He squirreled these stories away as athem only to take them out and examine them later

Stories were in Jack London’s blood Tales of adventure fed hier at best And now he had one hell of a story of his own, and wanted only to survive to live the next one

Such were the thoughts that lingered in his mind when he trod the by-now-faht hours lasted longer and longer, and he felt reinvigorated every time the sun appeared As he reached a turn in the path and ca where the cabin stood, he heard Merritt bellowing

"Jack!" the big man shouted "Jack, where are you?"

The excite had happened, so that would give Merritt Sloper such happiness Jack picked up his pace, troe

"Merritt?" he called, bursting frolanced around, confounded for a"Merritt, what is it?"

Then the door opened and Jim Goodman stepped out wrapped in one of the furs they had sewn over the long winter

"What’s all the shouting?" Jim asked as Jack hurried toward him

"Not a clue I heard Merritt, but--"

"I’m here!" Merritt called, and they both turned to see hi around the side of the cabin The winter had been hard on all of theht he’d lost He gave theood coffee," Merritt told theripped Merritt’s shoulders "The river?"

For weeks they had taken turns visiting the river every day, waiting and hoping

Merritt nodded "The ice is breaking You should hear it It sounds like the whole planet is cracking in half There’shere and there"

Jack whooped loudly and eentle to Dawson!"