k hold of her arm gently and led her
towards his mother.

"This is my mother, Adolay," he said; "she will take care of you."

"Your _wife_?" asked Mrs Mangivik, with an anxious look.

"No, not my wife," replied the youth, with a laugh. "Take her to our
hut, you and Nootka, while I go and speak with the men.--She saved my
life, father," he added, turning to Mangivik, "be good to her."

On hearing this, Nootka and her mother took the girl affectionately by
both hands and led her away.

Cheenbuk meanwhile went up to the big hut, just outside of which was
held a meeting of nearly the whole population, to receive an account of
his adventures from the man whom they had long ago given up as lost.

"My friends," he began, surveying the expectant assembly with a grave
straightforward look, "when I went by myself to the Whale River, my
intention was to hunt around and find out if there were many birds and
beasts on lands near to it, and if many men lived or hunted there, for
it came into my mind that this little island of Waruskeek is not the
best place in the world to live in, for our tribe is continually
increasing. I thought that if there were Fire-spouters there already,
we must be content with the lands we have got, for it is not right to
take what belongs to other men."

Cheenbuk paused here and looked round, because he knew that he was
treading on somewhat new and delicate ground in thus asserting a
principle of _right_; and he was not mistaken, for, while the most of
his audience remained silent, several of them expressed dissent.

"Besides," he continued, "it is not wise to attack men with
fire-spouters, which send into their enemies heavy little things like
that which was lately picked out of Gartok's leg; the same as still
seems to be sticking in Ondikik's back."

"Ho! ho!" exclaimed a number of the men, as if that truth commended
itself to their understandings.

"Well, when I got to the river, I found plenty of white-whales at the
mouth of it, and great plenty of birds of all kinds, and of deer--a land
good for man to dwell in, with many trees that would make
sledge-runners, and much dead wood for our fires, and no one living
there, nor signs of anybody. Then I thought to myself, Why should we
live always among the floes and bergs? The few Fire-spouters whom we
have seen and heard of have better food, better homes, better tools of
every kind. Why should not we have the same?"

Here the wise Cheenbuk