Children of the Frost
Page 8
"else would he not speak the speech of the Bear People, which is like the
speech of the Hungry Folk, which is very like the speech of the Mandells.
For there have been many Sunlanders among the Bear People, few among
the Hungry Folk, and none at all among the Mandells, save the Whale
People and those who sleep now in the igloo of Neegah." "Their sugar is
very good," Neegah commented, "and their flour."
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"They have great wealth," Ounenk added. "Yesterday I was to their ship,
and beheld most cunning tools of iron, and knives, and guns, and flour,
and sugar, and strange foods without end."
"It is so, brothers !" Tyee stood up and exulted inwardly at the respect and
silence his people accorded him. "They be very rich, these Sunlanders.
Also, they be fools. For behold! They come among us boldly, blindly, and
without thought for all of their great wealth. Even now they snore, and we
are many and unafraid."
"Mayhap they, too, are unafraid, being great fighters," the wizened little
old hunter objected.
But Tyee scowled upon him. "Nay, it would not seem so. They live to the
south, under the path of the sun, and are soft as their dogs are soft. You
remember the dog of the Whale People? Our dogs ate him the second day,
for he was soft and could not fight. The sun is warm and life easy in the
Sun Lands, and the men are as women, and the women as children."
Heads nodded in approval, and the women craned their necks to listen.
"It is said they are good to their women, who do little work," tittered
Likeeta, a broad-tripped, healthy young woman, daughter to Tyee himself.
"Thou wouldst follow the feet of Mesahchie, eh?" he cried angrily. Then
he turned swiftly to the tribesmen. "Look you, brothers, this is the way of
the Sunlanders! They have eyes for our women, and take them one by one.
As Mesahchie has gone, cheating Neegah of her price, so will Likeeta go,
so will they all go, and we be cheated. I have talked with a hunter from the
Bear People, and I know. There be Hungry Folk among us; let them speak
if my words be true."
The six hunters of the Hungry Folk attested the truth and fell each to
telling his neighbor of the Sunlanders and their ways. There were
mutterings from the younger men, who had wives to seek, and from the
older men, who had daughters to fetch prices, and a low hum of rage rose
higher and clearer.
"They are very rich, and have cunning tools of iron, and knives, and guns
without end," Tyee suggested craftily, his dream of sudden wealth
beginning to take shape.
"I shall take the gun of Bill-Man for myself," Aab-Waak suddenly
proclaimed.
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"Nay, it shall be mine!" shouted Neegah; `'for there is the price of
Mesahchie to be reckoned."
"Peace! O brothers!" Tyee swept the assembly with his hands. "Let the
women and children go to their igloos. This is the talk of men; let it be for
the ears of men."
"There be guns in plenty for all," he said when the women had unwillingly
withdrawn. "I doubt not there will be two guns for each man, without
thought of the flour and sugar and other things. And it is easy. The six
Sunlanders in Neegah's igloo will we kill to-night while they sleep. Tomorrow
will we go in peace to the ship to trade, and there, when the time
favors, kill all their brothers. And to-morrow night there shall be feasting
and merriment and division of wealth. And the least man shall possess
more than did ever the greatest before. Is it wise, that which I have
spoken, brothers?"
A low growl of approval answered him, and preparation for the attack was
begun. The six Hungry Folk, as became members of a wealthier tribe,
were armed with rifles and plenteously supplied with ammunition. But it
was only here and there that a Mandell possessed a gun, many of which
were broken, and there was a general slackness of powder and shells. This
poverty of war weapons, however, was relieved by myriads of boneheaded
arrows and casting-spears for work at a distance, and for close
quarters steel knives of Russian and Yankee make.
"Let there be no noise," Tyee finally instructed; "but be there many on
every side of the igloo, and close, so that the Sunlanders may not break
through. Then do you, Neegah, with six of the young men behind, crawl in
to where they sleep. Take no guns, which be prone to go off at unexpected
times, but put the strength of your arms into the knives."
"And be it understood that no harm befall Mesahchie, who is worth a
price," Neegah whispered hoarsely.
Flat upon the ground, the small army concentred on the igloo, and behind,
deliciously expectant, crouched many women and children, come out to
witness the murder. The brief August night was passing, and in the gray of
dawn could be dimly discerned the creeping forms of Neegah and the
young men. Without pause, on hands and knees, they entered the long
passageway and disappeared. Tyee rose up and rubbed his hands. All was
going well. Head after head in the big circle lifted and waited. Each man
pictured the scene according to his nature— the sleeping men, the plunge
of the knives, and the sudden death in the dark.
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A loud hail, in the voice of a Sunlander, rent the silence, and a shot rang
out. Then an uproar broke loose inside the igloo. Without premeditation,
the circle swept forward into the passageway. On the inside, half a dozen
repeating rifles began to chatter, and the Mandells, jammed in the
confined space, were powerless. Those at the front strove madly to retreat
from the fire-spitting guns in their very faces, and those in the rear pressed
as madly forward to the attack. The bullets from the big 45: go's drove
through half a dozen men at a shot, and the passageway, gorged with
surging, helpless men, became a shambles. The rifles, pumped without
aim into the mass, withered it away like a machine gun, and against that
steady stream of death no man could advance.
"Never was there the like!" panted one of the Hungry Folk. "I did but look
in, and the dead were piled like seals on the ice after a killing!"
"Did I not say, mayhap, they were fighters?" cackled the wizened old
hunter.
"It was to be expected," Aab-Waak answered stoutly. "We fought in a trap
of our making."
"O ye fools !" Tyee chided. "Ye sons of fools! It was not planned, this
thing ye have done. To Neegah and the six young men only was it given to
go inside. My cunning is superior to the cunning of the Sunlanders, but ye
take away its edge, and rob me of its strength, and make it worse than no
cunning at all ! "
No one made reply, and all eyes centred on the igloo, which loomed vague
and monstrous against the clear northeast sky. Through a hole in the roof
the smoke from the rifles curled slowly upward in the pulseless air, and
now and again a wounded man crawled painfully through the gray.
"Let each ask of his neighbor for Neegah and the six young men," Tyee
commanded.
And after a time the answer came back, "Neegah and the six young men
are not."
"And many more are not!" wailed a woman to the rear.
"The more wealth for those who are left," Tyee grimly consoled. Then,
turning to Aab-Waak, he said: "Go thou, and gather together many
sealskins filled with oil. Let the hunters empty them on the outside wood
of the igloo and of the passage. And let them put fire to it ere the
Sunlanders make holes in the igloo for their guns."
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Even as he spoke a hole appeared in the dirt plastered between the logs, a
rifle muzzle protruded, and one of the Hungry Folk clapped hand to his
side and leaped in the air. A second shot, through the lungs, brought him
to the ground. Tyee and the rest scattered to either side, out of direct
range, and Aab-Waak hastened the men forward with the skins of oil.
Avoiding the loopholes, which were making on every side of the igloo,
they emptied the skins on the dry drift-logs brought down by the Mandell
River from the tree-lands to the south. Ounenk ran forward with a blazing
brand, and the flames leaped upward. Many minutes passed, without sign,
and they held their weapons ready as the fire gained headway.
Tyee rubbed his hands gleefully as the dry structure burned and crackled.
"Now we have them, brothers! In the trap!"
"And no one may gainsay me the gun of Bill-Man," Aab-Waak
announced.
"Save Bill-Man," squeaked the old hunter. "For behold, he cometh now !"
Covered with a singed and blackened blanket, the big white man leaped
out of the blazing entrance, and on his heels, likewise shielded, came
Mesahchie, and the five other Sunlanders. The Hungry Folk tried to check
the rush with an ill-directed volley, while the Mandells hurled in a cloud
of spears and arrows. But the Sunlanders cast their flaming blankets from
them as they ran, and it was seen that each bore on his shoulders a small
pack of ammunition. Of all their possessions, they had chosen to save that.
Running swiftly and with purpose, they broke the circle and headed
directly for the great cliff, which towered blackly in the brightening day a
half-mile to the rear of the village.
But Tyee knelt on one knee and lined the sights of his rifle on the rearmost
Sunlander. A great shout went up when he pulled the trigger and the man
fell forward, struggled partly up, and fell again. Without regard for the
rain of arrows, another Sunlander ran back, bent over him, and lifted him
across his shoulders. But the Mandell spearmen were crowding up into
closer range, and a strong cast transfixed the wounded man. He cried out
and became swiftly limp as his comrade lowered him to the ground. In the
meanwhile, Bill- Man and the three others had made a stand and were
driving a leaden hail into the advancing spearmen. The fifth Sunlander
bent over his stricken fellow, felt the heart, and then coolly cut the straps
of the pack and stood up with the ammunition and extra gun.
"Now is he a fool!" cried Tyee, leaping high, as he ran forward, to clear
the squirming body of one of the Hungry Folk.
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His own rifle was clogged so that he could not use it, and he called out for
some one to spear the Sunlander, who had turned and was running for
safety under the protecting fire. The little old hunter poised his spear on
the throwing-stick, swept his arm back as he ran, and delivered the cast.
"By the body of the Wolf, say I, it was a good throw!" Tyee praised, as the
fleeing man pitched forward, the spear standing upright between his
shoulders and swaying slowly forward and back.
The little wizened old man coughed and sat down. A streak of red showed
on his lips and welled into a thick stream. He coughed again, and a strange
whistling came and went with his breath.
"They, too, are unafraid, being great fighters," he wheezed, pawing
aimlessly with his hands. "And behold! Bill-Man comes now! "
Tyee glanced up. Four Mandells and one of the Hungry Folk had rushed
upon the fallen man and were spearing him from his knees back to the
earth. In the twinkling of an eye, Tyee saw four of them cut down by the
bullets of the Sunlanders. The fifth, as yet unhurt, seized the two rifles, but
as he stood up to make off he was whirled almost completely around by
the impact of a bullet in the arm, steadied by a second, and overthrown by
the shock of a third. A moment later and Bill-Man was on the spot, cutting
the pack-straps and picking up the guns.
This Tyee saw, and his own people falling as they straggled forward, and
he was aware of a quick doubt, and resolved to lie where he was and see
more. For some unaccountable reason, Mesahchie was running back to
Bill-Man; but before she could reach him, Tyee saw Peelo run out and
throw arms about her. He essayed to sling her across his shoulder, but she
grappled with him, tearing and scratching at his face. Then she tripped
him, and the pair fell heavily. When they regained their feet, Peelo had
shifted his grip so that one arm was passed under her chin, the wrist
pressing into her throat and strangling her. He buried his face in her breast,
taking the blows of her hands on his thick mat of hair, and began slowly to
force her off the field. Then it was, retreating with the weapons of his
fallen comrades, that Bill-Man came upon them. As Mesahchie saw him,
she twirled the victim around and held him steady. Bill-Man swung the
rifle in his right hand, and hardly easing his stride, delivered the blow.
Tyee saw Peelo drive to the earth as smote by a falling star, and the
Sunlander and Neegah's daughter fleeing side by side.
A bunch of Mandells, led by one of the Hungry Folk, made a futile rush
which melted away into the earth before the scorching fire.
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Tyee caught his breath and murmured, "Like the young frost in the
morning sun."
"As I say, they are great fighters,', the old hunter whispered weakly, far
gone in hemorrhage. "I know. I have heard. They be sea- robbers and
hunters of seals; and they shoot quick and true, for it is their way of life
and the work of their hands."
"Like the young frost in the morning sun," Tyee repeated, crouching for
shelter behind the dying man and peering at intervals about him.
It was no longer a fight, for no Mandell man dared venture forward, and as
it was, they were too close to the Sunlanders to go back. Three tried it,
scattering and scurrying like rabbits; but one came down with a broken
leg, another was shot through the body, and the third, twisting and
dodging, fell on the edge of the village. So the tribesmen crouched in the
hollow places and burrowed into the dirt in the open, while the Sunlanders'
<
br /> bullets searched the plain.
"Move not," Tyee pleaded, as Aab-Waak came worming over the ground
to him. "Move not, good Aab-Waak, else you bring death upon us."
"Death sits upon many," Aab-Waak laughed; "wherefore, as you say, there
will be much wealth in division. My father breathes fast and short behind
the big rock yon, and beyond, twisted like in a knot, lieth my brother. But
their share shall be my share, and it is well."
"As you say, good Aab-Waak, and as I have said; but before division must
come that which we may divide, and the Sunlanders be not yet dead."
A bullet glanced from a rock before them, and singing shrilly, rose low
over their heads on its second flight. Tyee ducked and shivered, but Aab-
Waak grinned and sought vainly to follow it with his eyes.
"So swiftly they go, one may not see them," he observed.
"But many be dead of us," Tyee went on.
"And many be left," was the reply. "And they hug close to the earth, for
they have become wise in the fashion of fighting. Further, they are
angered. Moreover, when we have killed the Sunlanders on the ship, there
will remain but four on the land. These may take long to kill, but in the
end it will happen."
"How may we go down to the ship when we cannot go this way or that?"
Tyee questioned.
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"It is a bad place where lie Bill-Man and his brothers," Aab-Waak
explained. "We may come upon them from every side, which is not good.
So they aim to get their backs against the cliff and wait until their brothers
of the ship come to give them aid."
"Never shall they come from the ship, their brothers! I have said it."
Tyee was gathering courage again, and when the Sunlanders verified the
prediction by retreating to the cliff, he was light-hearted as ever.
"There be only three of us!" complained one of the Hungry Folk as they
came together for council.
"Therefore, instead of two, shall you have four guns each," was Tyee's
rejoinder.
"We did good fighting."
"Ay; and if it should happen that two of you be left, then will you have six
guns each. Therefore, fight well."
"And if there be none of them left?" Aab-Waak whispered slyly.
"Then will we have the guns, you and I," Tyee whispered back.
However, to propitiate the Hungry Folk, he made one of them leader of