The Giant of the North | Page 6

usual, he
thought much, as he gazed in a contemplative manner at his oily parent,
and there is no saying to what lengths of self-sacrifice he would have
gone if he had not been aroused, and his thoughts scattered to the winds,
by a yell so tremendous that it might well have petrified him on the
spot. But it did nothing of the kind. It only caused him to drop on his
knees, dart through the tunnel like an eel, spring into the open air like
an electrified rabbit from its burrow, and stand up with a look of
blazing interrogation on his huge countenance.

The cry had been uttered by his bosom friend and former playmate
Oolichuk, who came running towards him with frantic gesticulations.
"The Kablunets!" he gasped, "the white-faces have come!--on a
floating island!--alive!--smoking!--it is all true!"
"Where?" demanded our giant, whose face blazed up at once.
"There!" cried Oolichuk, pointing seaward towards the ice-hummocks
with both hands, and glaring up at his friend.
Without another word Chingatok ran off in the direction pointed out,
followed hotly by his friend.
Oolichuk was a large and powerful man, but, his legs were remarkably
short. His pace, compared with that of Chingatok, was as that of a
sparrow to an ostrich. Nevertheless he kept up, for he was agile and
vigorous.
"Have you seen them--have you spoken?" asked the giant, abruptly.
"Yes, all the tribe was there."
"No one killed?"
"No, but terribly frightened; they made me run home to fetch you."
Chingatok increased his speed. So did Oolichuk.
While they run, let us leap a little ahead of them, reader, and see what
had caused all the excitement.
The whole party had gone off that morning, with the exception of
Chingatok and his mother, to spear seals in a neighbouring bay, where
these animals had been discovered in great numbers. Dogs and sledges
had been taken, because a successful hunt was expected, and the ice
was sufficiently firm.
The bay was very large. At its distant southern extremity there rose a

great promontory which jutted far out into the sea. While the men were
busy there making preparations to begin the hunt, Oblooria,
Chingatok's little sister, amused herself by mounting a hummock of ice
about thirty feet high.
When there, she chanced to look towards the promontory. Instantly she
opened her eyes and mouth and uttered a squeal that brought her
friends running to her side.
Oolichuk was the first to reach her. He had no need to ask questions.
Oblooria's gaze directed his, and there, coming round the promontory,
he beheld an object which had never before filled his wondering eyes.
It was, apparently, a monstrous creature with a dark body and towering
wings, and a black thing in its middle, from which were vomited
volumes of smoke.
"Kablunets! white men!" he yelled.
"Kablunets!--huk! huk!" echoed the whole tribe, as they scrambled up
the ice-hill one after another.
And they were right. A vessel of the pale-faces had penetrated these
northern solitudes, and was advancing swiftly before a light breeze
under sail and steam.
Despite the preparation their minds had received, and the fact that they
were out in search of these very people, this sudden appearance of them
filled most of the Eskimos with alarm--some of them with absolute
terror, insomuch that the term "pale-face" became most appropriate to
themselves.
"What shall we do?" exclaimed Akeetolik, one of the men.
"Fly!" cried Ivitchuk, another of the men, whose natural courage was
not high.
"No; let us stay and behold!" said Oolichuk, with a look of contempt at
his timid comrade.

"Yes, stay and see," said Eemerk sternly.
"But they will kill us," faltered the young woman, whom we have
already mentioned by the name of Tekkona.
"No--no one would kill you," said Eemerk gallantly; "they would only
carry you off and keep you."
While they conversed with eager, anxious looks, the steam yacht--for
such she was--advanced rapidly, threading her way among the
ice-fields and floes with graceful rapidity and ease, to the unutterable
amazement of the natives. Although her sails were spread to catch the
light breeze, her chief motive power at the time was a screw-propeller.
"Yes, it must be alive," said Oolichuk to Akeetolik, with a look of
solemn awe. "The white men do not paddle. They could not lift paddles
big enough to move such a great oomiak," [see Note 1], "and the wind
is not strong; it could not blow them so fast. See, the oomiak has a
tail--and wags it!"
"Oh! do let us run away!" whispered the trembling Oblooria, as she
took shelter behind Tekkona.
"No, no," said the latter, who was brave as well as pretty, "we need not
fear. Our men will take care of us."
"I wish that Chingatok was