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At this point, where the Eskimos were for a time sheltered by the formation of the land, the Greygoose River had a double or horse-shoe bend; and the Indians, who knew the lie of the land well, thought it better to put ashore and run quickly over a neck of land in the hope of heading the kayaks before they reached the sea.
Meanwhile Adolay, having seen the Eskimo fairly in grips with the sentinel, ran swiftly back towards the village, intending, before going to Cheenbuk at the cliff, to let her mother know what she had done, and what she still purposed to do namely to embark with the Eskimo in a birch-bark canoe, guide him across the small lake that lay near the village, and show him the rivulet that would lead him into the Greygoose River.
For at the very time that the Eskimos, in their remote home on the ice-encumbered sea, were informally debating the propriety of making an unprovoked attack on the Dogrib Indians whom they facetiously styled Fire-spouters the red men were also holding a very formal and solemn council of war as to the advisability of making an assault on those presumptuous Eskimos, or eaters-of-raw-flesh, who ventured to pay an uncalled-for visit to the Greygoose River their ancestral property every spring.
In short, there was a good deal of the spirit of "let-be for let-be" between the two at the time of which we write. One morning in the spring-time of the year, soon after the floods caused by the melting snows had swept the ice clean out of Greygoose or Whale River, a sturdy young Eskimo urged his sharp kayak, or skin-covered canoe, up the stream in pursuit of a small white-whale.
"It pointed there," she continued, extending her hand in a north-westerly direction. "The Ukon River flows there," returned Nazinred thoughtfully, as he traced the various parts of the letter with his forefinger. "Is that river better than the Greygoose one?" asked Cheenbuk. "No. It is as good not better," replied the Indian, in an absent mood.
"Are you going with me?" asked the youth, with a look of hopeful surprise and a very slight flutter of the heart. "You do not know the lake. I will guide you to the place where the little river runs out of it, and then, by following that, you will get into Greygoose River, which I think you know."
Don't you remember that one, mother, that we met when we went last spring with some of our men to shoot at the Greygoose River? He was a fine man big and strong, and active and kind almost good enough to be a Dogrib." "I remember him well," returned Isquay, "for he saved my life. Have you forgotten that already?" "No, I have not forgotten it," answered the girl, with a slight smile.
Meanwhile the young men who had followed the lead of Gartok fifteen in number were cautiously ascending the Greygoose River, each in his kayak, armed with a throwing-spear, lance, and bow. One of their number was sent out in advance as a scout. Raventik was his name.
"My braves," said he, "those filthy eaters-of-raw-flesh have, as you know, been in the habit of coming to Greygoose River every spring and trespassing on the borders of our hunting-grounds." He paused and looked round. "Waugh!" exclaimed his audience, in order to satisfy him. With a dark frown the old chief went on. "This is wrong. It is not right.
His inquiries had led him to believe that the Eskimo who had carried off his child belonged to the tribe which had recently been pursued by his compatriots, and that they probably dwelt among the islands, some of which were seen, and others known to exist, off the Arctic coast opposite the mouth of the Greygoose River.
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