g. Neither did they know that the _nogock_, or whale-killing
weapon, is a sacred object in the native villages, where it is always
kept in the charge of the headman, or leader in the whale-hunts, who
wraps it up carefully and hides it from view. The Aleuts never allow
the women of their villages to look at the _nogock_, saying that it
brings bad luck for any one to look at it or touch it except the chief
himself. Therefore, had the boys known that their prisoner had stolen
this sacred object, as well as the bidarka and much of its cargo, they
would better have understood the nature of this pursuit and the
intentness of the Aleut chief to punish the offender, who had been
guilty of a crime held, in their eyes, to be as bad or worse than
murder.

Not, however, understanding all these things, and being very well
disposed toward their captive, who had been of such service to them, the
boys were not willing to turn him over at once to these people whom he
so evidently feared, and who with so little ado announced their
intention of killing him. For the time Rob could think of nothing better
than continuing the parley.

"You got-um bad mans!" asserted the chief again.

"One mans," admitted Rob. "Maybe so good mans; we don't know."

"Where you comes?" asked the chief, presently, looking about him. "This
my house here. White mans come here now?"

Rob did not think it best to admit that they were castaway and lost on
these distant shores, so he determined to put on a bold front.

"Heap hunt here," he said, pointing to the meat and the hides stretched
on the ground. "Kill three bear. Catch-um plenty fish. By-and-by
schooner come."

"When schooner come?" asked the chief, with a cunning gleam in his eye.

"Pretty soon, by-and-by," said Rob, sternly. "Plenty white mans come
pretty soon."

The chief was not to be balked of his purpose, and kept edging toward
the door of the barabbara. "Kill-um bad mans," he muttered. "Him steal."

Rob, seeing that he was bent on this, and unable to dissuade him from
his certainty that the fugitive was inside the hut, for the moment
scarcely knew what to do.

"No touch-um mans!" he finally commanded, sternly. "White mans come here
by-and-by--Uncle Sam white mans. Suppose bad mans steal; Uncle Sam
catch-um. You no touch-um bad mans!"

The chief hesitated, for he knew perfectly well that all the villages of
this island were under control of United States law, and although the
natives somet