A Countess from Canada | Page 7

a piece, Miss?" asked the agent in a tone of
concern. "It is a shocking long way for a bit of a girl, even though she
is on snowshoes."
"It is not longer for me than for Father, and I don't even have to drag
the sledge as he does," Katherine replied brightly, as she fitted her
moccasined feet into the straps of her snowshoes.
The dogs were in a great hurry to start, and one, a great
brown-and-white beast which always followed next the leader, kept
flinging up its head and howling in the most dismal manner until they
were well on their way. The noise got on Katherine's nerves to such an
extent that she was tempted to use her whip to the dog, and only
refrained because it seemed so cruel to thrash a creature for just being
miserable. To cheer the animals for the heavy work before them, she
talked to them as if they were human beings, encouraging them so
much that they took the first ten miles at a tremendous rate, following
so close on the track of the first sledge that presently 'Duke Radford
held up his hand as a signal for stopping, then turned round to
expostulate in a peevish tone: "What do you mean by letting the dogs
wear themselves out at such a rate? We shall have one of them
dropping exhausted presently, and then we shall be in a nice fix."
"I haven't used the whip once, Father, but I thought it was better to get
them on as fast as I could, for I have felt and seen ever so many
snowflakes in the last half-hour," Katherine said penitently.
'Duke Radford turned his face rather anxiously windward, and was
considerably worried to find that a few small snowflakes came dancing
slowly down, and that the slight draught of the morning was changing
to a raw, cold wind from off the water.
"It is a fall coming, and by the look of it, it may be heavy. You had
better keep the dogs coming as fast as you can. But stop if I throw up
my hand, or you will be running me down."

"Shall we change places for a time?" asked Katherine. "I am not a bit
tired, but you look just worn out."
"No, no, I can't have you dragging a sledge. But be careful and keep the
dogs from rushing down the slopes and overrunning me," he answered,
then started forward again.
The flakes were falling faster now, but they were so fine that they
would have scarcely counted had it not been for the number of them. At
the end of the next half-hour the fall was like a fog of whirling atoms,
and the travellers looked like moving snow figures. The dogs were still
running well, and Katherine found it hard work to keep them back,
especially on the slopes, where they would persist in trying to make
rushes, so getting thoroughly out of hand. She was keeping them back
down one long bad slope which abounded in pitfalls, when to her
horror she heard her father cry out, then saw him and his sledge
disappear, shooting into a whirling smother of snow.
[Illustration: 'Duke Radford meets with an accident]
With a sharp order to the dogs to stop, which they promptly obeyed by
dropping in four panting heaps on the snow, she went forward alone to
see what had happened to her father. It was a simple enough accident,
and one that had to be constantly guarded against in drawing a sledge
when travelling on snowshoes. In going down the slope the sledge had
travelled proportionally faster than the man, and, catching against the
framework of one of the snowshoes, had flung him with tremendous
force between two trees. The trees, which were really two shoots from
one root, grew so close together that when 'Duke Radford was pitched
in between them he was wedged fast by the force of the impact, while
the sledge, coming on behind, bounded on to his prostrate body. He
groaned when Katherine dragged the sledge away, and cried out with
the pain when she tried to help him out.
"Did it hurt you so badly? Oh, I am sorry! But I will be more careful
next time," she said; and, stepping carefully backwards after that first
vain attempt, she slipped her feet clear of the snowshoes and went
closer to the tree, so that she might try to lift him out of the fork by

sheer strength of arm. But the snow was so soft that she sank in over
her ankles, going deeper and deeper with every attempt which she
made to wriggle herself free.
"This won't do," she said sharply. "I won't be long, Father dear, but