all doses of O'Flynn's
whisky down the Boy's throat in spite of his unbecoming behaviour, for
he was both belligerent and ungrateful, complaining loudly of the ruin
of his clothes with only such intermission as the teeth-chattering,
swallowing, and rude handling necessitated.

"I didn't like--bein' in--that blow-hole. (Do you know--it was so
cold--it burnt!) But I'd rather--be--in a blow-hole--than--br-r-r!
Blow-hole isn't so s-s-melly as these s-s-kins!'

"You better be glad you've got a whole skin of your own and ain't
smellin' brimstone," said the Colonel, pouring a little more whisky
down the unthankful throat. "Pretty sort o' Klondyker you are--go and
get nearly drowned first day out!" Several Pymeut women came in
presently and joined the men at the fire, chattering low and staring at
the Colonel and the Boy.

"I can't go--to the Klondyke--naked--no, nor wrapped in a
rabbit-skin--like Baby Bunting--"

Nicholas was conferring with the Colonel and offering to take him to
Ol' Chief's.

"Oh, yes; Ol' Chief got two clo'es. You come. Me show"; and they
crawled out one after the other.

"You pretty near dead that time," said one of the younger women
conversationally.

"That's right. Who are you, anyway?"

"Me Anna--Yagorsha's daughter."

"Oh, yes, I thought I'd seen you before." She seemed to be only a
little older than Muckluck, but less attractive, chiefly on account of
her fat and her look of ill-temper. She was on specially bad terms with
a buck they called Joe, and they seemed to pass all their time abusing
one another.

The Boy craned his neck and looked round. Except just where he was
lying, the Pymeut men and women were crowded together, on that side of
the Kachime, at his head and at his feet, thick as herrings on a
thwart. They all leaned forward and regarded him with a beady-eyed
sympathy. He had never been so impressed by the fact before, but all
these native people, even in their gentlest moods, frowned in a chronic
perplexity and wore their wide mouths open. He reflected that he had
never seen one that didn't, except Muckluck.

Here she was, crawling in with a tin can.

"Got something there to eat?"

The rescued one craned his head as far as he could.

"Too soon," she said, showing her brilliant teeth in the fire-light.
She set the tin down, looked round, a little embarrassed, and stirred
the fire, which didn't need it.

"Well"--he put his chin down under the rabbit-skin once more--"how