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"We can lose any other person and not miss him much. But without you we'd be without a head." Therefore, when they had clambered through the last steep cut and reached the farther slope of the cliff, the hunter called a halt and built a camp, determined to bivouac here although the oil man assured him that they were now less than twenty miles from Aleukan.

The natives believed implicitly that the white men in the strange flying machine had brought the awful earthquakes and storms of ashes, and that now they were burning up the poor Indians for a part of the day and freezing them the rest of the time. Believing all the whites in the region leagued together they had at once driven out the traders at Aleukan.

"I've never been up in the air," he said, "and I must admit that I am somewhat more afraid of a flying machine than I am of an earthquake." "No more earthquakes in mine, thank you!" cried Jack. "I'd rather sail on a kite than go through what we did yesterday." They had studied the chart and laid the course for Aleukan without any difficulty.

For some moments he had felt like an intoxicated person in the vastly rarified plane of the upper ether. The professor staggered to the young operator's side. "Danger! Danger above, boy!" he gasped. "We cannot cross these mountains while while the air is so thin." "But we need not cross them to reach Aleukan?" suggested Jack, speaking with some difficulty himself.

There was a trail, however, passable in summer for a dogtrain from Coldfoot to Aleukan; and a dogtrain could likewise pass from the native village to the valley where the miner had found the herb. These facts the professor and his young associates discovered as soon as Dr. Todd's instructions arrived. They made their plans accordingly.

Our grumbling and anxiety is a shame." Yet it was very difficult to remain cheerful under the circumstances as they then were. Their provisions, even for the dogs, were at a low ebb. Not a shot at edible bird or beast had they obtained since leaving Aleukan. And the torrid sun by day and the frost by night were most trying.

"But you know we must at least arrive at Aleukan in time to meet the train from Coldfoot. If the Snowbird cannot be launched again, we will have to see if our good friend here, Mr. Roebach, can fit us out with dogs and men." "That I'll do to the best of my ability," said the oil man, rising. "But I'd better get out now and set my men to work.

It was not until this time they discovered that their pocket compasses pointed the north as being in a totally different direction from what they had supposed. Phineas Roebach had declared the native settlement of Aleukan to be directly north and west of the place where he had tapped the mud-spouter.

"What do you say, Mark?" "I'm with you," returned his chum. "Can't we take Andy and Wash, Mr. Henderson, and go right up to that hollow and see what needs to be done to the flying machine? Perhaps we can get off for Aleukan by to-morrow if we hustle." "If you boys think you can repair the damage done the machine in so short a time," agreed the professor, doubtfully.

He had agreed to travel as far as Aleukan with the party and there hire fresh Indians and sleds, hoping to find these dogs on his return. He had to have assistants and provisions before he could go on with his work for the Universal Oil Company. "Merely that yonder oil-shoot turned into a mud-bath doesn't feaze him," chuckled Jack to Mark.