ooked straight at each other. Wade's eyes snapped,
and his hands clinched.

"Here, here!--come, none of that!" exclaimed Kit, "or I'll thrash both
of you. Wade, you are to blame. You said the first unkind thing. You
ought to ask his pardon."

"He needn't do that," said Raed. "I was to blame as well as he."

"Well, that's magnanimous!" exclaimed Wade, suddenly relenting.
"Beg'e' pardon, old fellow! I _was_ to blame."

And we all laughed, in spite of the qualms sticking in our throats.

CHAPTER XIV.

We set up a Military Despotism on "Isle Aktok."--"No Better
than Filibusters!"--The Seizure of the Oomiak.--The
Seal-Tax.--A Case of Discipline.--_Wutchee_ and
_Wunchee_.--The Inside of a Husky Hut.--"Eigh, Eigh!"--An
Esquimau Ball.--A Funeral.--Wutchee and Wunchee's
Cookery.--The Esquimau Whip.

"Raed, will you act as leader, or captain?" Kit asked.

"I decline," was the reply. "It is hardly fair to ask me, I think.
That honor--if you look upon it as such--is clearly yours."

"Very well, then. All hands launch the boat!"

It was done.

"Load in the walrus-hides."

They were rolled up and thrown in.

"Ship the _spider_ too."

I carried it aboard.

"Now each man spend fifteen minutes attending to his musket! Get off
all rust! See that the locks move easily! Load them, and fix the
bayonets!"

This done, we called Guard, and embarked; not forgetting to take our
dipper of salt, the walrus-tusks, and Wade's broken bayonet.

"Give 'way!" was the order.

Weymouth and Donovan dipped the oars; and we darted out from the
little cove beneath the ledges where for seven days we had kept our
camp-fire blazing. Kit took up a paddle, and from the stern directed
our course toward the larger island.

"I can't see what better we are than any gang of desperadoes or
filibusters," Raed remarked.

"Circumstances alter cases, Raed," replied Kit.

"Now, for God's sake, don't shed the blood of any of the poor
wretches!" Raed said.

"Never fear: we will manage it without killing any of them, I guess."

On coming up within a quarter of a mile of the shore, we surveyed it
carefully. There were none of the Esquimaux in sight, however, to
oppose our landing; and the boat was rowed along to within four or
five hundred yards of the place where the _oomiak_ and _kayaks_ had
been drawn up on the shore. Landing, we drew up our boat between two
large rocks, and went along to where the _oomiak_ lay.