into each other's eyes
we saw that we were both men of peace. We let our bodies go soft, and
dropped the spouter on the ground.

"`Why should we fight?' said he.

"`That was just in my thought,' said I.

"So we stood up, and he took hold of my hand in the way that the white
traders do, and squeezed it. I will show you how.--Give me your hand,
Anteek--no, the other one."

The boy extended his hand, and Cheenbuk, grasping it, gave it a squeeze
that caused the little fellow to yell and throw the assembly into
convulsions of laughter, for Eskimos, unlike the sedate Indians, dearly
love a practical joke.

From this point Cheenbuk related the rest of his interview with the
Indian, and was particularly graphic in his description of the pipe,
which he exhibited to them, though he refrained from any reference to
its effect upon himself. Then he discoursed of his subsequent
exploration of the mainland, and finally came to the point where he met
and rescued Rinka.--"But tell me, before I speak more, is Rinka dead?"

"No, she is getting well."

"That is good," he continued, in a tone of satisfaction. "Old Uleeta, I
doubt not, told you of the fight I had with the Fire-spouters?"

"She did," cried Anteek, with delight, "and how you gave them sore
hearts!"

"H'm! they gave me a sore heart too; but I don't care now! And they
would have roasted me alive, but one of their girls had pity on me,
helped me to escape, and came away with me. Adolay is her name--the
girl you saw to-day."

"Ho! ho! hoi-oi?" broke forth the chorus of satisfaction.

"Yes, but for her," continued Cheenbuk, "I should have been under the
ground and my hair would have been fluttering on the dress of a
Fire-spouter chief by this time. Now, I have promised this girl that I
will get a large party of our young men to go back with her to Whale
River and give her back to her father and mother."

At this there were strong murmurs of dissent, and a man whom we have not
yet introduced to the reader lifted up his voice.

This man's name was Aglootook. He was the medicine-man of the tribe--a
sort of magician; a sharp, clever, unscrupulous, presumptuous, and
rather fine looking-fellow, who held the people in some degree of
subjection through their superstitious fears, though there were some of
the men among them who would not give in to his authority. As Eskimos
have no regular chiefs, this man tried to occupy the position of one.
He had just returned f