Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-30

of the Little Hills, emerged a man. he
crawled forth on all tours from the tunnel
of his doorway and stood up and peered about
him. His squat figure was clothed and hooded
in furs His little twinkling eyes, after clearing
themselves from the smoke and smart of the
thick air within the igloo, could see farther
through the gloom than even the eyes OF the
bear He noted the fall of the wind, the savage
intensity of the cold, and his eyes frightened
with hope. He had no fear of the cold; but he
feared the hunger that was threatening the
lonely village During the long rage OF the
wind the supply of food in his igloo had run
low. He welcomed cold that would close up
most of the seals breathing holes and force
more numerous visitors to the few holes they
could keep OPEN
For some moments he stood motionless, peer
ing and listening as the bear had done. Sud-
denly he too caught that far off, light crashing
of brittle ice. On the instant he turned and
crawled hastily back into the hut.
A moment later he reappeared. carrying two
weapons besides the long knife stuck IN his
grdle One of these weapons an old Hud-
son Bav Companv's musket The other a
spear of spliced bone with steel head securely
dashed to it. Powder and ball for the musket
were much too precious to be expended, except
in some emergency wherein the spear might
fail. Without waiting for repetition OF the
sounds, he started off at once unerringly IN the
direction they had come. He knew that arr
hole. he could find it in the deluslve gloom
without the aid of landmark.
For some way he went erect and IN haste,
though as soundesslv as the bear. Then,
throwing himself fiat, he followed exactly the
bears tactics: till at last, peering cautiously
over jagged ice ridge, he too could make out
the quarry, watchful1y coming and going about
the brink of the airhole.
From this point onward the mans move
ments were SO slow as to be almost impercepti-
BILE But for his thick covering of furs, his skin
tough as leather and reeking with oil, he would
have been frozen in the midst OF his Journey;
but the still excitement OF the hunt was pump
ing the blood hotly through his veins. He was
now within gunshot; but in that dim light his
shooting would be uncertain. He preferred to
worm his way nearer and then trust to his more
accustomed weapon, the spear, which he could
drive halfway through the tough bulk OF wal
rus.
AT last there remained between him and the
seals but one low ridge and then space of level
foe This was the critical point. If he could
writhe his BODY over the crest and down the
other side, he would be within safe spearshot.
He could spring to his feet and throw before the
nimblest seal could gain the water He lay abb
soutelv still summonng wits, nerves, and
muscles alike, to serve his will with their best.
His ewes burned deep in his head, like smolder-
ing GOALS
TCST at this moment ghostly light waved
> broadly across the solitude. 1t paled, with
drew, wavered back and forth as shaken from
a curtain in the heavens, then steadied epheme-
the light of dozen moons. There were three
seals out upon the ice at that moment, and
they all lifted their eyes simultaneously to
greet the illumination. The man irresistibly
looked up; but in the same instant, remem-
bering the hunger in the igloo, he covered back
out of sight trembling lest some of the seals
might have caught glimpse of his head above
the ridge. Some dozen rods away, at the other
side of the arhole, the great white bear also
raised his ewes toward that mysterious light,
troubled at heart, because he knew it was going
to hamper his hunting.
For perhaps two minutes the seals were
motion1ess, profiting by the sudden brightness
to scrutinize the expanse of ice and snow in
every direction. Then quite satisfied that no
danger was near, they resumed their sportlve
plungings while the instantly frozen waters
cracked crisply about them. For all their
vigilance, they had failed to detect, on the
one side a narrow, black tipped muzzle, lying
fiat in cleft of the ice ridge, or, on the other
side, bunch of grayish fur, nearly the color of
the grayish notified ice, which covered the
head of the man from the igloo beside the Little
Hills.
And now. while neither the man the
bear, each utterly unconscious of the other,
dared to stir, in flash the still silver radiance
of the aurora broke up and famed into riot
of dancing color. Parallel rays, like the pipes
of titanic organ, reaching almost from the
horizon to the zenith, hurtled madly from side
to side, now elongating, now shortening alb
ruptly, now seeming to clash against one an
other; but always in an ordered madness OF