In his breast the spirit of adventure was waking--had awakened; he felt the call of the Northland, and it alarmed even as it thrilled him.

He knew, now, that this was the beginning--the door opening to him--of a world that reached for hundreds of miles up there.

Yes, there were thousands of miles of it, many thousands; white, as he saw it here; beautiful, terrible, and deathly still.

And into this world Father Roland had asked him to go, and he had as good as pledged himself! Before he could think, or stop himself, he had laughed.

For an instant it struck him like mirth in a tomb, an unpleasant, soulless sort of mirth, for his laugh had in it a jarring incredulity, a mocking lack of faith in himself.