14 Arctic Adventure Read Online Free PDF

wherever you look there’s nothing but white —white on the ground, White in the air, and a white sky. It’s all very confusing. Some people have gone crazy in a white-out.’
    ‘Well, I can’t go crazy because I’ve got to find my brother. If he’s tumbled down in the snow, he may freeze to death. Which way did we come?’
    ‘I’m not sure. Fact is, I’m having a bit of a white-out myself,’ said Olrik. ‘But I know who can find him.’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘The huskies.’
    He turned the dogteam about. Perhaps they thought they were going home. They went back as they had come and stopped where Roger lay in the snow. He was unconscious.
    Hal pushed and pulled the body. ‘Wake up,’ he said. There was no response.
    Olrik was worried. ‘Is he dead?’
    Hal pulled off one of Roger’s fur mitts and put his finger where the pulse should be. He could feel nothing. The hand was stiff with cold.
    ‘I’m afraid he’s gone,’ said Hal.
    ‘Perhaps not. He’s so cold the circulation has stopped in his wrist. Try his temple.’
    Hal put his finger on a point about an inch in front of the boy’s ear. At first he felt nothing. His own fingers were so cold that even if there were a pulse he might not feel it. He put his hand inside his own coat and warmed it up. Then he tried again. He found a very slow, weak throb in his brother’s temple.
    ‘Thank the Lord,’ he yelled. ‘He’s alive!’
    ‘That’s great,’ cried Olrik. ‘Too many have died up here. Let’s wrap him up in a couple of caribou hides and put him on the sledge. He ought to warm up and wake up. Perhaps he won’t —but we’ll do our best.’
    The boy was bundled up in a caribou skin with the fur side inside. Around this was wrapped another skin with the fur side outside.
    ‘That’s the way we do it to get the most warmth,’ Olrik said.
    The huskies, who had thought they might be going home, were turned about and the trip was continued.
    For an hour Roger lay there without moving, his eyes closed. Then warmth and life seemed to steal through his body and he opened his eyes.
    ‘What am I doing on the sledge?’ he asked. ‘Am I a piece of baggage?’ He tried to throw off the covers.
    ‘Just try to be baggage for a while longer,’ Hal said. ‘We almost lost you.’
    ‘I don’t remember anything,’ Roger said. ‘Get me out of here. The dogs have enough to pull without me.
    ‘Don’t move,’ said Hal. ‘Just pretend you are the King of Siam and this is your golden chariot.’
    ‘The storm is letting up,’ Olrik announced. ‘Already there’s a bit of blue above. In half an hour we’ll see the sun. Then we’ll stop for lunch.’
    ‘How can you tell, when it’s lunch-time?’ Hal wondered.
    ‘By my stomach,’ said Olrik. ‘I don’t really know whether it’ll be lunch-time or dinner-time or midnight. Anyhow, something inside me tells me that it’s time to eat.’

Chapter 7
Perils of the Ice Cap
    They put up a tent. It was easier than building an igloo every time they stopped. The tent was not made of canvas. It was far better than that. Thick caribou hide with plenty of shaggy hair still on the outside would keep out the cold and would also shut out the sunlight in case they wanted to sleep. The floor was another caribou hide.
    ‘How about the dogs?’ Roger asked. ‘Don’t they have to be unharnessed?’
    ‘No,’ Olrik answered. ‘The harness is very light — it won’t bother them. If a bear came around and the dogs were not harnessed they might run away and we’d never see them again. Or they might gang up against the bear and kill it. You wouldn’t want that to happen.’
    ‘But won’t they freeze to death if they can’t run?’
    ‘They know how to avoid freezing. Come and take a look at them.’
    He took Roger around to the side of the tent. There Roger saw one of the strangest sights he had ever seen in his life.
    What he saw was a great heap of dog flesh. The weary huskies had piled up on each other so that