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Updated: May 14, 2025
Some even asserted that she should be killed, but the majority decided that as Torngak had said merely that "Chealuk must go" that meant only that she must be sent away. If this did not prove sufficient to counteract their ill luck, why she could, after a reasonable time, be sought out and dispatched, if she had not in the meantime perished.
He must get into immediate communication with Torngak and learn the spirit's wishes and demands and what must be done to dispel the evil charm that Chealuk had worked by her thoughtlessness. Tauvituk was quite willing indeed anxious to do this, but he demanded to be well paid for it, and every man had to contribute some valuable pelt or article of clothing.
In the morning while they were drinking their hot tea Bob told Akonuk and Matuk of the apparition he had seen in the night. "That," they said in awe, "was the spirit of Torngak," and Bob was duly impressed. Upon a visit later to the other igloos he missed Chealuk. She had always sat in one corner plying her needle, and had always had a word for him when he came in to pay a visit.
Finally from sheer exhaustion he quieted down and came out of his trance. He probably thought that he had given them their value's worth and what they had wanted, and that they should be satisfied. It was now decreed that, this being the direct command of Torngak, Chealuk must be expelled from the camp.
As he descended the hill a flake of snow struck his face and it was followed by others. A breath of wind like a blast from a bellows swirled the flakes abroad. The elements were awakening. In the igloos Akonuk and Matuk were brewing tea for supper and the three ate in silence. Bob asked once, "What's to be done with Chealuk?" "Nothing," they answered laconically.
Then he wound up with the startling announcement that he believed he knew the cause of Torngak's anger: that on the very day of their arrival he had seen Chealuk one of the old women sewing a netsek sealskin adikey with the sinew of the tukto reindeer. Every one turned to Chealuk for confirmation and she said simply, "It is true." The Eskimos were struck dumb with horror.
Her absence was therefore noticeable and Bob asked one of the Eskimos where she was. "Gone," said the Eskimo. And this was all he could learn from them. Poor old Chealuk had been sent away, and it must have been she, then, that he had seen in the darkness. That night Bob was aroused again, and he immediately realized that something of moment had occurred.
They were still busily engaged arranging their new quarters when one of the Eskimos called the attention of the others to a black object far out upon the ice in the direction from which they had come. Slowly it tottered towards them and in a little while it was made out to be old Chealuk, who had been in hiding somewhere on the island.
He struck out and grasped those within his reach, and they were glad to escape from his iron clutch. For several minutes this wild frenzy lasted before he said an intelligible word. "The deer! The deer! The deer's sinew! Chealuk! Chealuk! Chealuk! Torngak! The evil spirit is in Chealuk! She must go! Must go! Send Chealuk away! Send her away! Send her away! Send her away!"
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