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

a. -.
wire Of Kotukos collar and had drawn
tight so that neither dog could get At
the trace to gnaw " apart, but was fas-
tened sidelong to his neighbours neck
The girl pushed the two shamefaced
creatures toward Kotuko. and, Sob
bing with laughter, cried: THAT Is
Quiquern which led US to safe ground.
Look at his eight legs and double head"
kotuko cut them free, and they fell
into his arms, yellow and black to-
gether, trying 10 explain how they had
got their senses back again. Kotuko
ran hand down their ribs, which were
round and wen clotAed. "They have
found food" he said with a grin. Il
do not uaink we snail so to Sedna so
soon. My tornaq sent these. The
sickness has left them"
AS soon as they had greeted Kotuko
these two who had been forced to sleep
and eat and hunt together for the
past few months flew at each Others
throat and there was beautiful battle
In the snow house. Empty dogs do
not fight" Kotuko said. "They have
found the SEAL Let us sleep. We shall
find food"
When they walked there was open wa
Ter on the north beach of the island
ana all the loosered ice had been driven
iardWard. The first sound of the surf
rs one of the most delightful that the
mutt can hear for 1t means that spring
is on the road. Kotuko and the girl
took hands and smiled, for the clear fun
rear 'oi the surge among the ice re-
minded them of salmon and reindeer
time and the smell of blossoming
ground willows, Even as they looked
the seu began to skim over between
une hoating cakes of ice, so intense
was the cold, but on the horizon there
was a vast red glare that was the light
OF the sunken sun. Tt was more like
hearing him yawn in his sleep than
seeing him rise, and the glare only
lasted for an hour or two. but it marked
the turn of the year. Nothing. thew
felt could alter that
Kotuko found the dogs fighting over
fresh-killed seal who was following
the fish that gale always distu,fbs
He was the first of some twenty of thir-
ty seal that handed on the island in
the course of day and, till the sea
froze hard. there were hundreds of keen
black heads rejoicing in the shallow
free water and floating about with the
fioa.ing ice
1t was good to eat seal-llver again:
to fill the lamps reclSless!y with blubbeT
and watch the flame blaze ehree feet in
the air. but as soon as the new sea
Ice bore kotuko and the girl loaded the
hard-sleish and made the two dogs pull
as they had never pulled before in
vneir hives, for they feared what might
nave happened in their village. The
/ weather, of course, was as pitiless as
usual, but 1T is easier to draw a sleigh
loaded with good food than to hunt
starving. They left five and twenty
seal calcasses buried i'm the ice Of the
beach already for use and hurried back
10 their nnAr1a .I, 4
tAem THE way as soon as Kotuko told
them what was expected. and though
there was no sign of a landmark, for
Two days they were giving tongue out
Slce kaOlu's house. Only three dogs
answered them; the Others had bcen
eaten; and the houses were all dark
But when Kotulo shouted: "Ojo.
'bolled meat weak voices answered.
and when he called the call of the VIZ
iage name by name. very distinctly,
there were no gaps in it,
An hour later the lamps blazed in
kadlu's house. snow water was meW-
ing. the pots We're beginning to simmer
and the snow was drifting from the
foot at Amoraq made ready a meal for
all the village, and the boy baby in the
hood chewed at q strip Of rich nutty
blubher and the hunters slowly and
methodially filled themselves to the
| very hrln with seal-meat. KOtuko and
the girl told their tale The two dogs
sat b5'.iween them, and whenever their
names came in they cooked an ear
apiece and looked most thoroughly
ashamed of themselves. A dog who has
once gone mad the Inuit say Is safe
against all attacks.
so the tornaq did not forget u.s."
said Kotulto. THE Storm blew; the
ice broke and the seal swan in, behind
the fish that were frightened by the
storm. Now the new seal holes are not
two days distant. Let the good hunt
ers go tomorrow and bring back the