said he would
show the way. He was an old man then, and his hair was white; but he was
unafraid. And he was cunning, for he took the ship to where the sea
sucks in to the land and the waves beat white on the mountain called
Romanoff. The sea sucked the ship in to where the waves beat white, and
it ground upon the rocks and broke open its sides. Then came all the
people of Pastolik, (for this was the plan), with their war-spears, and
arrows, and some few guns. But first the Russians put out the eyes of
Old Kinoos that he might never show the way again, and then they fought,
where the waves beat white, with the people of Pastolik.

"Now the head-man of these Russians was Ivan. He it was, with his two
thumbs, who drove out the eyes of Kinoos. He it was who fought his way
through the white water, with two men left of all his men, and went away
along the rim of the Great Fog Sea into the north. Kinoos was wise. He
could see no more and was helpless as a child. So he fled away from the
sea, up the great, strange Yukon, even to Nulato, and I fled with him.

"This was the deed my father did, Kinoos, an old man. But how did the
young man, Negore?"

Once again she silenced him.

"With my own eyes I saw, at Nulato, before the gates of the great fort,
and but few days gone. I saw the Russian, Ivan, who thrust out my
father's eyes, lay the lash of his dog-whip upon thee and beat thee like
a dog. This I saw, and knew thee for a coward. But I saw thee not, that
night, when all thy people--yea, even the boys not yet hunters--fell upon
the Russians and slew them all."

"Not Ivan," said Negore, quietly. "Even now is he on our heels, and with
him many Russians fresh up from the sea."

Oona made no effort to hide her surprise and chagrin that Ivan was not
dead, but went on:

"In the day I saw thee a coward; in the night, when all men fought, even
the boys not yet hunters, I saw thee not and knew thee doubly a coward."

"Thou art done? All done?" Negore asked.

She nodded her head and looked at him askance, as though astonished that
he should have aught to say.

"Know then that Negore is no coward," he said; and his speech was very
low and quiet. "Know that when I was yet a boy I journeyed alone down to
the place where the Yukon drowns itself in the Great Fog Sea. Even to
Pastolik I journeyed, and even beyond, into the north, along the rim of
the sea. This I did when I was a boy, and I was no coward. Nor was I