Bob and Netseksoak sprang to his aid, but
they were too late.
The dogs had devoured every scrap of food they had, save some tea that
Bob kept in a small bag in which he carried his few articles of
dunnage.
This was a terrible condition of affairs, for though they were
doubtless doomed to drown with the first wind strong enough to shatter
the ice, still the love of living was strong within them, and they
must eat to live.
Separating and going in different directions, the three hunted about
in the vain hope that somewhere on the ice there might be seals that
they could kill, but nowhere was there to be seen a living
thing--nothing but one vast field of ice reaching to the horizon on
the north, east and south. To the west the water sparkled in the
sunlight, but no land and no life, human or otherwise, was within the
range of vision.
After a time they returned to their bivouac and then drove the dogs a
little farther into the ice pack to a high hummock that Aluktook had
found, and with an axe and snow knives cut blocks of ice from the
hummock and snow from a drift on its lee side, and finally had a
fairly substantial igloo built. This they made as comfortable as
possible, and settled in it as the last shelter they should ever have
in the world, as they all firmly believed it would prove.
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