that the others
were under another chief; that he could tell them to hunt and fish, to be
prepared for a food scarcity later, but that they would do as they pleased
about it.

Johnny left the igloo with a worried expression on his face. If these
natives had moved to this village close beside them with the notion that
they would be able to trade for or beg the food which he had stored in his
warehouse, they were doomed to disappointment. And having been
disappointed, doubtless they would become dangerous.

This last conclusion was verified as he went the rounds of the village
peering into every igloo. There were rifles in each one of them, good ones
too--high power hunting rifles for big game--lever action, automatic. In
every igloo he found men stretched out asleep, and this on a splendid day
for hunting. They were but waiting for the night, which they would spend
in wild singing, tom-tom drumming and naked dances.

Johnny did not find the people he had come to seek. In none of the igloos
did he see a single person resembling, in the least degree, the little
yellow men who had attacked him on the hill.

All this but confirmed his own opinion and that of Jarvis, that somewhere
in these hills there was hiding away a company of Orientals, spies of
their government, perhaps. But where could they be?

Johnny was not surprised, two days later, when, on coming out of his
storeroom, he found a dark-faced and ugly Chukche looking in.

"Plenty cow-cow," the man grimaced.

"Ti-ma-na" (enough), said Johnny.

"Wanchee sack flour mine."

"No," said Johnny, closing and locking the door.

The man departed with a sour look on his face. He returned within an hour.
With him was a boy. Between them they carried the most perfectly preserved
mastodon tusk Johnny had ever seen.

"Flour?" the man said, pointing to the tusk.

Johnny could not resist the temptation to barter for the tusk. He yielded.
The man carried his flour away in triumph.

After that, not a day passed but a half score or more of the natives came
sneaking about the cabin, the storeroom, and the mine, begging for food.

As the days wore on, as famine came poking his skeleton form into the
igloos of the improvident natives, the condition became truly serious.

Johnny dispatched a messenger inland to discover if it would be possible
to obtain deer meat from the Reindeer Chukches living there. When he found
that a few deer might be obtained, he began trading spa