nd wonderful thought had come to him. He felt that, at any rate,
he owed this person something, and he should have it. Beside Johnny on
the ledge, where some native had left it, out of reach of the dog's, was
a sewed up seal skin full of seal oil. To the native of the north seal
oil is what Limburger cheese is to a Dutchman. He puts it away in skin
sacks to bask in the sun for a year or more and ripen. This particular
sackful was "ripe"; it was over ripe and had been for some time. Johnny
could tell that by the smooth, balloon-like rotundity of the thing. In
fact, he guessed it was about due to burst. Once Johnny had taken a cup
of this liquid for tea. He had it close enough to his face to catch a
whiff of it. He could still recall the smell of it.

Now his right hand smoothed the bloated skin tenderly. He twisted it
about, and balanced it in his hand. Yes, he could do it! The Russian was
not looking up. There was a convenient ledge, some three feet above his
head. There the sack would strike and burst. The boy smiled, in
contemplation of that bursting.

"This for what you may have done," Johnny whispered, and balancing the
sack in his hand, as if it had been a football, he gave it a little
toss. Over the cliff it went to a sheer fall of fifteen feet. There
followed a muffled explosion. It had burst! Johnny saw the Russian
completely deluged with the vile smelling liquid. Then he ducked.

As he lay flat on the ledge, he caught a silvery laugh. Looking quickly
about, he found himself staring into the eyes of the little Jap girl.
She had been watching him.

"You--you--know him?" he stammered.

The girl shrugged her shoulders.

"Your friend?"

She shook her head vigorously.

"Enemy? Kill?" Johnny's hand sought his automatic.

"No! No! No!" she fairly screamed. "Not kill!" Her hand was on his arm
with a frantic grip.

"Why?"

"No can tell. Only, not kill; not kill now. No! No! No! Mebby never!"

"Well, I'll be--" Johnny took his hand from his gun and peered over the
ledge. The man was gone. It was a dirty trick he had played. He half
wished he had not done it. And yet, the Jap girl had laughed. She knew
what the man was. She had been close enough to have stopped him, had she
thought it right. She had not done so. His conscience was clear.

They crept away in the gathering darkness, these two; and Johnny
suddenly felt for this little Jap girl a comradeship that he had not
known before. It was such a feeling a