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Here at last they had hit on common ground tapped a universal spring of human communication. Adolay at once beamed an answering smile, and displayed all her brilliant teeth in doing so. This drew a soft laugh of pleasure from Nootka and an intelligent nod.
Meanwhile the women and children went to look at the captive. Among them were Adolay and her mother. The moment the former set eyes on Cheenbuk she recognised him as the youth who had rescued her mother from drowning the previous year. "Mother," she whispered, drawing her parent aside, "that is him! Don't you remember him?"
I only wish the brave Eskimo was an Indian." "I think you would be offering to be his squaw if he was," said the mother with a short laugh. "Perhaps I would. But he's only an eater-of-raw-flesh!" Adolay sighed as gently as if she had been a civilised girl! "But he has gone away to the great ice lake, so I suppose we shall never see him again."
Besides, love is strong as death and he meant to find Adolay or die! His hut, as might have been expected, was not such as an Eskimo architect would have praised, but it was passable for a first attempt. He knew that the northern masons built their winter dwellings in the form of a dome, therefore he essayed the same form; but it fell in more than once before the keystone of the arch was fixed.
"May it not have been fear of this man, this Magadar, which drove her away?" suggested Cheenbuk. "You were not there to defend her. She may have been afraid of him, although you fear him not." "That is true," returned the Indian, with a brighter look, "though I thought that Adolay feared nothing but she is not her father."
"That is useful knowledge. Will my son speak now, and tell me what he knows about Adolay?" "He knows that she is well spoken of, and much loved by the tribe with which she lives." "That is natural," said the Indian, with a pleased look. "No one who sees Adolay can help loving her. Does the young man who took her away treat her kindly?" "No one can tell that but herself.
"Run for that tree when you are free and wait." Turning round, as though her rage was satisfied for the time being, Adolay left the spot with a dark frown on her face. "Leave him now, boys," she said in passing. "Give him time to think about to-morrow."
Then he laid down the axe, and, taking up the scalping-knife, began to whittle sticks with renewed energy. Suddenly he paused and looked at Adolay with ineffable delight. "They are good?" she remarked with a cheerful nod. "Good, good, very good! We have nothing nearly so good. All our things are made of bone or stone."
The kayak of Cheenbuk was about half a length behind the canoe, else the Eskimo would have seen that though the Indian's voice was low and calm, his black eyes glittered with excitement. "It is not like the gun of the Dogribs," remarked Adolay, glancing back at her father. "Why does Adolay think so?" "Because there is too much noise.
It is good-feeling, very strong good-feeling, that makes the young Eskimo wish to make Adolay his squaw, and it is the same good-feeling that now makes Nazinred willing that he should have her."
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