and would
certainly intrude. Out on the floes was an exposed place--to vision as
well as to wind and drift. What was left to him, then, but the ship?

Hurrying through the village in order to carry out his plans, the boy
encountered Mrs Mangivik at the entrance to her hut.

"Where are you going, Doocheek?" demanded the woman, with a look of
suspicion born of frequent experience.

With that spirit of ambiguous contradiction which would seem to prevail
among the youth of all nations, Doocheek replied, "Nowhere."

It is interesting to observe how that remarkable answer seems to satisfy
inquirers, in nine cases out of ten, everywhere! At all events Mrs
Mangivik smiled as if she were satisfied, and re-entered her hut, where
Nootka was engaged in conversation with Adolay, while she taught her how
to make Eskimo boots.

"Did not Cheenbuk forbid every one to go near the big kayak while the
men were away?" demanded the woman.

"Yes he did," answered Nootka, without raising her eyes.--"Now look
here, Ad-dolay. You turn the toe up this way, and the heel down that
way, and shove your needle in so, and then--"

"I am very sure," interrupted Mrs Mangivik, "that little Doocheek has
gone down there. There's not another little boy in the tribe but
himself would dare to do it."

"He will lose some of his skin if he does," said Nootka quietly--
referring not to any habit of the Eskimos to flay bad boys alive, but to
their tendency to punish the refractory in a way that was apt to ruffle
the cuticle.

Quite indifferent to all such prospects in store for him, the boy
hurried on until he reached the foot of the snow staircase. It had been
repaired by that time, and the deck was easily gained. Descending to a
part of the interior which was rather dark--for the boy was aware that
his deeds were evil--he sat down on a locker and opened his fire-bag.

Eskimos are not quite free from superstition. Doocheek had plenty of
natural courage, but he was apt to quail before the supernatural. Apart
from the conscience, which even in Arctic bosoms tends to produce
cowardice, the strange surroundings of the place--the deep shadows,
merging into absolute obscurity, and the feeling of mystery that
attached to everything connected with the vessel--all had the effect of
rendering Doocheek's enjoyment somewhat mixed. To look at him as he sat
there, glaring nervously on all sides, one would have been tempted to
say that his was what might