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He made no further attempt to resist, but, as a precaution, his hands were again tied, and then he was left to dry in the sun, and to his meditations, while the party made the traverse of the bay. This was accomplished in three trips. As the last party was about to start, Okiok and Kajo alone remained on the shore. "You had better think twice," said Rooney, as he was about to push off the boat.
Almost immediately he learned to puff, and in a very short time was rolling thick white clouds from him like a turret-gun in action. Evidently he was proud of his rapid attainments. "Humph! That won't last long," murmured Rooney to his companion. "Isn't it good?" said Kajo to Ippegoo. "Ye-es. O yes. It's good; a-at least, I suppose it is," replied the youth, with modesty.
"I propose," said Okiok, whose naturally kind heart had been deeply stirred by the cowardly massacre which he had witnessed, "I propose that we should drown them." "No; drowning is far too good. Let us spear them," said Kajo, who had become sober by that time. "That would not hurt them," cried a fierce Eskimo, smiting his knee with his clenched fist.
"What right have you," he continued, turning sharply on the last speaker, "to look with contempt on Kajo? You have been drinking mad water yourself. I smell it in your breath. If you were to take a little more, you would be quite ready to commit murder." "No, I would not," replied the Eskimo stoutly. "Yes, you would," said the sailor, still more stoutly.
Every man and boy who could handle a kayak took to the water with harpoon and lance. Ippegoo, Arbalik, Okiok, Simek, Norrak, and Ermigit were among them, in borrowed kayaks, and mad as the maddest with glee. Even Kajo joined them. He was as drunk as the proverbial fiddler, having obtained rum from the sailors, and much more solemn than an owl.
"So then," said Angut to Egede, as they were bringing Kajo ashore, "this is the effect of the mad waters that I have often heard of, but never seen till now." "Yes, Angut, you see the effect of them at least on one man; but their effects vary according to the nature of those who drink. Some men they make violent, like Kajo; others become silly; while not a few become heavy, stupid, and brutal.
Unable to check himself, down also went Rooney on the top of him. Next moment the luckless Kajo was secured with a piece of walrus-line, and flung on one side, while the indignant party held a noisy consultation as to what was to be done with him. With Hans Egede, Red Rooney, and Angut as chief councillors, it may be easily understood that the punishment awarded to Kajo was not severe.
They soon reached the ledge of rock where Okiok had seen the "something," and, looking cautiously over it, Rooney beheld his friend Kajo smoking a long clay pipe such as Dutchmen are supposed to love. Ippegoo was watching him in a state of ecstatic absorption. Rooney drew back and indulged in a fit of stifled laughter for a minute, but his companion was too much surprised even to smile.
But Rooney never got a satisfactory answer to that question, and Kajo continued to drink and smoke until, happily for himself, he had to quit the settlements and proceed to the lands of thick-ribbed ice, where nothing stronger than train oil and lamp-smoke were procurable. As for poor Ippegoo, he did not show himself to his friends during the remainder of that day.
"Tell me," continued the seaman sternly, "before you tasted strong drink or tobacco, did you want them?" "No," replied Kajo. "Are you in better health now that you've got them?" "I I feel the better for them," replied Kajo. "I did not ask what you feel," returned Rooney. "Are you better now than you were before? That's the question."
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