"hot water" Tanana meant of course the liquor in his bottle,
and when Anvik saw the young bear and the condition his father and
brother were in, the lad immediately became very anxious, for the
Eskimos are usually very careful not to kill a young bear without
having first killed its mother. It is considered a very rash thing
to kill the cub first, and when men who are pressed by hunger do it,
they are obliged to exercise the strictest precaution lest they
should be attacked by the mother-bear, for she will surely follow on
the track of the men.

So the Eskimos usually go in a straight line for about five or six
miles, and then suddenly turn off at a right angle, so that the
mother-bear, as she presses eagerly forward, may overrun the
hunters' track and lose her way. The men go on a distance, and then
turn as before.

After doing this several times, the men dare to go home, but even
there weapons are placed ready for use by the bedside, and outside
the house sledges are put up right, for the bear is always
suspicious of the erect sledge, and she will knock it dawn before
she will attack the igloo. The knocking down of the sledge makes a
noise that gives warning to the family.

But when Anvik saw the condition that his father and brother were
in, he was greatly frightened, for he did not believe that the
liquor had left enough sense in their minds so that they had
remembered to turn off in the homeward journey, and, if they had
come home without covering their track, there could be no doubt that
the mother bear would come to attack the igloo that very night.

But it would do no good to say anything to Tanana and his father.
They were far too much under the influence of what they had been
drinking. Anvik told his mother his suspicions.

"We will set up the sledge outside the igloo," said his mother,
trembling.

"I will have my harpoon ready," answered Anvik bravely. "Do not
fear, mother. Perhaps the bear will not come."

They put two harpoons and a spear beside the raised platform of snow
in the igloo, after the father and older son were stupidly sleeping.

Then came an anxious time of waiting. The stone lamp's light grew
more and more dim to Anvik's drowsy eyes, as he, too, lay on one
side of the circular platform. Nothing disturbed his father and
brother in their heavy, liquor-made sleep. Anvik's eyes closed at
last, even while he was determined to keep awake. His mother, tired
with scraping and pounding skins