The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-10-26

OI al tHeBe IdutdStlC Shapes, Ill On the
very edge OF starting into life. there was
neither sound nor the least faint echo
OF sound. And through this silence
and through this waste where the sud-
den lights tapped and went out again
the sleigh and the two that pulled It
crawled like things in a nightmare
nightmare OF the end of the world at
the end OF the world.
When they were tired Kotuko would
make what the hunters call "half
house" a very small snow hut into
which they would huddle with the trav-
cling lamp and try to thaw out the
frozen seal meat. When they had slept,
the march began again-thirty miles a
day to get ten miles northward. The
girl was always,very SILENT but Kotuko
muttered to himself and broke out into
songs he had learned in the singing
house--summer songs and reindeer and
salmon songs-all horribly out of place
at that season. He would declare that
he heard the tornaq growing to him
and would run wildly up hummock
tossing his arms and speaking to some
one In loud threatening tones. To tell
the truth kotukowas very nearly crazy
for the time being; but the gir1 was
sure that ne was being guided by his
guardian spirit and that everything
would come right. She was not sur
prised therefore when, at the end of
the fourth march, Kotuko, whose eyes
were burning like fire balls in his head,
told her that his ,tornaq was following
them across the snow in the shape Of a
two-headed dog. The girl looked where
kotuko pointed and something seemed
to slip into ravine. 1t was certainly
not human, but everybody knew that
the tornait preferred to appear in the
shape of bear and seal and such like.
1T might have been the ten-iegged
white Spiritbear himself, or 1t might
have been anything. for Kotuko and the
girl were SO starved that their eyes be-
trayed them. They had trapped moth
ing and seen no trace of game since they
had left the village; their food would
not hold out for another week and there
was a gale coming. A polar storm will
sometimes blow for ten days without
break, and all that time 1t Is certain
death to be abroad. KotukO laid up a
snowhouse large enough to take in the
hand sleigh-it is never wise to be sepa-
rated from your meat-and while he
was shaping the last Irregular block Of
ice that makes the keystone of the roof
he saw a thing looking at him from a
little cliff of ice half mile away. The
air was haZy and the thing seemed to
be forty feet long and ten feet high with
twenty feet Of tail and a shape that
quivered all along the outlines. The
girl saw 1t too but instead of crying
aloud with terror said quietly: ''That
Is Quiquern. What comes after?"
''He will speak to me-" said kotuko,
but the snOw-knife trembled in mis-
hand as he spoke, because, however
much man may believe that he is O
friend Of strange and ugly spirits he
seldom likes Ito be taken ait his word.
The Ququeurn too, Is the phantom of
a gigantic toothless dog without any
hair who Is supposed to live in the far
north and to wander about the country
just before things are going to happen.
They may be pleasant or unpleasant
things, but not even the angekok care
to speak about Quiquern. He makes
the dogs go mad Like Spirltbear he
has several extra pairs of legs-six or
eight-and this thing jumping UP and
down In the haze had more legs than
any real dog needs.
Kotuko and the girl huddled into
their hut quickly. or course, If Qui-
quern had wanted them he could have
tern 1t 10 pieces above their heads, but
the sense of a foot-thick SNOWFALL be-
tween themselves and the wicked dark
was a great comfoiit. The gale broke
with shrek Of wind caught in the
ard for three days and three nights It
he'd, never varying one point and never
aulling even for a minute. They fed
the stone lamp between their knees and
niObled at the seals meat. and
watched the black SCOT gather on
the roof for seventyItwo long hours
The birl courtei up the food in the
sleigh; there was not more than three
days supply. and Kotuko looked over
the iron heads and the deer-sinew fast
enings of his harpoon and his seal-hook
and his bird-dart. There was nothing
else to do.
I'VE shall go to Sedna soon very
soon,' the girl whispered I'm four
days we shal lie down and 60. VIII
your tOrnaq do nothing? Sing her an
angekoks song to make her come
here"
He began to sing In the hig'h-pitched
howl of the magic songs, and the gale
went down slowly. In the middle of
his song the girl started. laid her nit
tened hand and then her head to the
ice floor of the hut. Kotuko followed
her example and the two kneeled star
ing into each others eyes and listening
with every nerve. He ripped a thin
silver OF whalebone from the rim of g
bird snare that lay on the sleigh and
after Strengthening set 1t up upright in
a little hole In the ice, firming 1t down
with his mftten. 1t was almost as deli
cately adjusted as compass needle,
and now, instead OF listening, they
watched. The thin rod quivering a lit
tle-the least little jar in the world
then 1t vibrated steadily for a few Sec
onds, came to rest and vlbrated again.
this time nodding to another point of
the compass.
"Too socn! said Kc,tuko. Some big
foe has broken far away outside"
The girl pointed at the rod and shook
her head. ut !s a breaking" She said.
Listen to the ground-ice? It knocks"
When they kneeled this time they
heard the most curious muffled erunts
and Knocking under their feet. Some
Times 1t sounded as though a blind
puppy were squeaking above the lamp:
t'1em as II stone were being ground on
hard Ice; arh again like muffled blows
on a drum. but all dragged out and
frade smarl as though they Travelled
through Hutle horn q weary distance
away.
1--WE shall not 60 to Sedna living
d0wn, said kotuko. ut Is a breaking.
die" '"aai
All this may sound absurd enouob
but the two were face to face with a
very real danger The three days'
gale had driven the deep water to Raj.
fms bay southerly and piled it ON the
EXjsl aIr3ngIn1n