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as he waited for someone to answer. There was no
sound but the wind, which had risen gale-like, whistling down the
smoke hole. The howling, that eerie howling and moaning of the
wind, gave Jean-Paul the creeps. Maybe it
isn’t the wind ! Maybe it’s a wolf !
    “ Hey, Chinook!” His voice didn’t sound
like his own voice. “Chinook? Nanuk?” But neither Chinook nor Nanuk
nor Aiverk answered Jean-Paul’s fearful cry. Only the wind. “I’m
coming out now!”
    There was no answer. It was
as though he had died and was locked inside his own tomb. They’re only playing with me. They’re trying to
scare me. The darkness closed in fast and
made his flesh crawl, gave him the shivers. Game or no game, they can’t force me to stay in an igloo
that’s supposed to be haunted ! All I have to do is go back out the same way I
came in. Jean-Paul was amazed at his
brilliance.
    He dropped to his hands and
knees and crept forward slowly, feeling his way in the darkness.
Suddenly, his hand touched the squashy thing on the floor. He
jumped away in alarm. It’s something
dead ! A wolf or
something came into the igloo and died . Sasha licked his face. He hugged her
tightly around the neck, burying his face in the thick fur.
“W–we’ll go outside again. I p–promise ... go outside…”
    The wind swirled through
the smoke hole, bringing with it part of the bitter Arctic night.
Jean-Paul clung to Sasha and cried. “If only I could see
something!”
    He moved cautiously around
the “thing” on the floor to where he thought the tunnel began. He
ran his hands over the frozen wall, feeling for an opening.
Nothing! The wall was icy-smooth, and he couldn’t find the
entrance. “I must be a few feet away from it,” he whispered to
Sasha. She licked his cheek with her warm tongue. She whined and
smothered him with wet kisses. Jean-Paul shoved her away and crept
around the circle of the igloo, feeling the wall as he went. And
that wall was as solid as a stone. There was a sleeping ledge. He
crawled up on it and examined the wall behind it. Still,
nothing.
    “ It’s got to be here!” he cried. “I
came in through a hole in the wall, and a hole doesn’t
disappear!”
    Jean-Paul sat on the ledge
to think. He was beginning to feel cold inside his leggings and
parka, through all the thick layers of underwear and socks and
shirts. His mittens might as well have been tissue for all the good
they were doing. Thoughts of death swam into his mind. I won’t let myself die! It’s just plain stupid to
be lost in an igloo ! If I follow the circular wall, I’ll find the entrance sooner
or later. Where is it ? He got up and examined the wall all over again. But there was
nothing. The tunnel was gone.
    Jean-Paul’s heart turned to
ice as he imagined being buried alive. If the wall hadn’t been so
thick—but he knew someone had packed more snow over the outside of
it. It sloped down steeply on one side, and children used the slope
for sliding.
    By now the blocks must be
at least two feet thick and frozen solid. How could he dig through
that with only his hands, which were already freezing? He didn’t
know what had happened to the entrance, but he realized he must
wait for the boys to come let him out when the time was
up.
    He tried again to get their
attention. He pounded and beat the igloo wall with both fists. But
beating on packed snow makes very little sound. Jean-Paul was
doomed. “ Let me out of
here !” he screamed. “ Oh, please, Chinook! Aiverk ! Somebody let me out ... let me
out !”

    Chapter 5

    A dogsled with three laughing boys raced down the trail toward
Aklavik.
    “ I’ll bet it scares the pants off
Jean-Paul!” yelled Chinook above the dangerously swirling wind.
Heavy snow was moving in from the northwest, sticking to his
eyebrows and shock of black hair that spilled over his forehead.
“We’ll go back in two hours and let him out!”
    “ Him and his mutt!” Nanuk laughed,
huddling with Aiverk on the sled.
    They