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"Ho! huk! hi!" interrupted the whole band of assembled warriors, leaping up and going through sundry suggestive actions with knives and spears. "Does my father wish me to get the kayaks ready?" asked Chingatok, who, as usual, retained his composure. "Do, my son. Let plenty of blubber be stowed in them, and war-spears," said the old chief; "we will start at once."
Those who do not like the fun of danger should join Eemerk. Those who are fond of fun and danger should come with our great chief Chingatok huk! Let us divide." Without more palaver the band divided, and it was found that only eight sided with Eemerk. All the rest cast in their lot with our giant, after which this Arctic House of Commons adjourned, and its members went to rest.
Each time it appeared, it seemed to remain in plain, challenging, insolent view, without ceasing to exist at the spots where it had appeared previously. In much less than a minute, the seeming of a sizable squadron of small human ships had popped out of emptiness and lay off the Huk home world at distances ranging from eighty thousand miles to three times as much.
In rapid succession, all the bubbles which were members of a non-existent fighting fleet winked out of existence about Sirene IV. There were a great many of them, and no trace of any remained. The last was long gone when a small salvage ship descended to the Huk home planet. A heavily accented voice talked it down. The salvage ship landed amid evidences of cordiality.
What do you mean?" demanded the wizard, with an air of what was meant for grave contempt. "If it was bigger than the biggest bear you have ever seen," replied Okiok, with a stupid look; "then you could not have seen it, because, you know, it could not well be bigger than itself." "Huk! that's true," exclaimed one, while others laughed heartily, for Eskimos dearly love a little banter.
At first our seaman felt an almost irresistible inclination to burst into a hearty fit of laughter, there seemed something so absurdly solemn in this cumulative stare, but good feeling fortunately checked him; yet he walked with his host along the lane with such a genuine expression of glee and good-will on his manly face that a softly uttered but universal and emphatic "Huk!" assured him he had made a good first impression.
Seated beneath the shadowy archway of the first caravanserai is a silent figure smoking a kalian; as we open the gate to leave, the figure rises up and thrusts forth an alms-receiver and in a loud voice sings out, "Backsheesh, backsheesh; huk yah huk!" It is the same dervish that was turned back with me by the guards at this same gate this afternoon.
"Tell them," said Captain Vane to Anders, the Eskimo interpreter, "that these are the machines that drive the ship along when there is no wind." He pointed down the hatchway, where the complication of rods and cranks glistened in the hold. "Huk!" exclaimed the Eskimos.
Koolotah's mother was dying; a desperate desire to save her stirred in his heart as he lifted his whip in the signal to start. The tribe cheered. "Huk! Huk!" he shouted, and his lean dogs followed Ootah's team. "Au-oo-au-oo!" called the natives. "Auoo-auoo!" the voices of Ootah and Koolotah returned. Over the snow-covered stretch of level shoreland the moon poured a flood of silver incandescence.
"The dead . . ." he murmured . . . "We have come unto the land of the dead." Both stood in silence, reverent, awed, half-afraid. Then Ootah snapped his whip. He called to the dogs. "Let us go unto them . . . Let us show that men are not afraid. Huk! Huk! Huk! Come!" The dogs howled, the traces tightened, the sleds sped forward. They entered the defile. The trail twisted up the side of the abyss.
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