he village. As their
eyes turned in that direction, Johnny and Iyok-ok beheld a strange
sight. The entire village had apparently turned out to give chase to one
man. And, down to the last child, they were armed. But such strange
implements of warfare as they carried! All were relics of by-gone days;
lances, walrus harpoons, bows and arrows, axes, hammers and many more.

As Johnny watched them, he remembered having been told by an old native
that during and after the great war these people had been unable to
procure a sufficient supply of ammunition and had been obliged to resort
to ancient methods of hunting. These were the bow and arrow, the lance
and the harpoon. Powerful bows, of some native wood, shot arrows tipped
with cunningly tempered bits of steel. The drawn and tempered barrel of
a discarded rifle formed a point for the long-shafted lance. The
harpoon, most terrible of all weapons, both for man and beast, was a
long wooden shaft with a loose point attached to a long skin rope. Once
five or six of these had been thrown into the body of a great white bear
or some offending human he was doomed to die a death of agonizing
torture; his body being literally torn to pieces by the drag upon the
strong skin ropes, fastened to the steel points imbedded in his flesh.

Now it seemed evident that for some misdeed one member of the tribe had
been condemned to die. As Johnny stood there staring, the whole affair
seemed so much like things he had seen done on the screen, that he found
it difficult to realize that this was an actual tragedy, being enacted
before his very eyes.

"They do it in the movies," he said.

"Yes," his companion agreed, "but here they will kill him. We must hurry
to help him."

"Who is he?"

"Don't you see? The Russian."

"Oh!" sighed Johnny. "Let 'em have him. He deserves as much from me,
probably deserves more from them."

"No! No! No!" Iyok-ok protested, now very much excited. "That will never
do. We must save him. They think he's from the Russian Government. Think
he will demand their furs and carry them away. They mistake. They will
kill him. Your automatic! We must hurry. Come."

Johnny found himself being dragged down the hill. As he looked below, he
realized that his companion was right. The man was doomed unless they
interfered. Already skillful archers were pausing to shoot and their
arrows fell dangerously near the fugitive.

"Now, from here," panted Iyok-ok. "Your automatic. Shoo