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"But the men will be angry," suggested the mother of Ippegoo. "Let them be angry bo-o-o!" returned the reckless Kabelaw. "Nunaga," said Nuna, looking eagerly over the side, "there goes another a big one; poke it." Nunaga poked it, but missed, and only brought up a small flat-fish, speared by accident.
"We shall see," said Kabelaw, whose sister remarked "if we are not blind." This mild observation was meant for a touch of pleasantry. Little touches of pleasantry often passed between these "lying sisters," as they were called, and they not infrequently culminated in touches of temper, which must have been the reverse of pleasant to either.
At the same instant the wizard took prompt advantage of his opportunity, and delivered what should have been the death-wound. But the very energy of the man foiled him, for the spear entered too near the shoulder, and stuck upon the bone. The fall of Kabelaw had the peculiar effect of producing a gush of desperation in the tender heart of Nunaga, which amounted, almost, to courage.
"But very thin," said Pussimek. "No matter; he can stuff," said Kabelaw, with a nod to her sister Sigokow, who was remarkably stout, and doubtless understood the virtue of the process. While this commentary was going on, the object of it was making himself comfortable on a couch of skins which Nuna had spread for him on the raised floor at the upper end of her hut.
"If I am killed," he said, "you will have to defend the children." There was a tone of pathos in the voice, which showed that no touch of selfish fear influenced the man. Hitherto the women and children had stood absolutely horror-struck and helpless, but the vigorous nature of Kabelaw came to her aid.
Poor, timid Nunaga, trembling from skin to marrow, had just courage enough to grasp her spear and follow Kabelaw. The latter understood well how to act. She had often seen her own kinsmen do the work that was required of her. As for the two little ones, they continued throughout to stand limp and motionless, with eyes and mouths wide-open.
The wizard tried, and found that he could creep on his hands and one knee, dragging the wounded limb on the ice. It gave him excruciating pain, but he was too much of a man to mind that. In a few minutes he was lying at full length on the sledge. "Now, Tumbler and Pussi," said Nunaga, "cover him well up with skins, while I go and fetch Kabelaw, but don't touch his leg."
These labours ended, Nunaga put the little ones to bed, made the wizard and Kabelaw as comfortable as possible for the night, fastened up the dogs, and, spreading her own couch in the most convenient spot beside them, commenced her well-earned night's repose.
"This is not the way to Moss Bay." "It is not far out of the way," said Kabelaw, who was the more self-assertive of the two lying sisters; "we go to visit a trap, and have no time to waste with you."
"Won't we stuff to-night!" remarked Kabelaw to her sister, as they went home bending under a weight of blubber. "Ay and to-morrow," replied Sigokow. "And some days beyond to-morrow," observed old Kannoa, who staggered after them under a lighter load of the spoil. But it was not the Eskimos alone who derived benefit from this unexpected prize.
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