At the end of the clear ice was a narrow break in the shore, where a creek ran into the main stream.  If Joan had been conscious she would have urged him straight ahead.  But Kazan turned into the break, and for ten minutes he struggled through the snow without a rest, whining more and more frequently, until at last the whine broke into a joyous bark.  Ahead of him, close to the creek, was a small cabin.  Smoke was rising out of the chimney.  It was the scent of smoke that had come to him in the wind.  A hard level slope reached to the cabin door, and with the last strength that was in him Kazan dragged his burden up that.  Then he settled himself back beside Joan, lifted his shaggy head to the dark sky and howled.

A moment later the door opened.  A man came out.  Kazan’s reddened, snow-shot eyes followed him watchfully as he ran to the sledge.  He heard his startled exclamation as he bent over Joan.  In another lull of the wind there came from out of the mass of furs on the sledge the wailing, half-smothered voice of baby Joan.

A deep sigh of relief heaved up from Kazan’s chest.  He was exhausted.  His strength was gone.  His feet were torn and bleeding.  But the voice of baby Joan filled him with a strange happiness, and he lay down in his traces, while the man carried Joan and the baby into the life and warmth of the cabin.

A few minutes later the man reappeared.  He was not old, like Pierre Radisson.  He came close to Kazan, and looked down at him.

“My God,” he said.  “And you did that—­alone!”

He bent down fearlessly, unfastened him from the traces, and led him toward the cabin door.  Kazan hesitated but once—­almost on the threshold.  He turned his head, swift and alert.  From out of the moaning and wailing of the storm it seemed to him that for a moment he had heard the voice of Gray Wolf.

Then the cabin door closed behind him.

Back in a shadowy corner of the cabin he lay, while the man prepared something over a hot stove for Joan.  It was a long time before Joan rose from the cot on which the man had placed her.  After that Kazan heard her sobbing; and then the man made her eat, and for a time they talked.  Then the stranger hung up a big blanket in front of the bunk, and sat down close to the stove.  Quietly Kazan slipped along the wall, and crept under the bunk.  For a long time he could hear the sobbing breath of the girl.  Then all was still.

The next morning he slipped out through the door when the man opened it, and sped swiftly into the forest.  Half a mile away he found the trail of Gray Wolf, and called to her.  From the frozen river came her reply, and he went to her.