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Updated: May 3, 2025
"I will give you your life," Makamuk made answer through the interpreter. Subienkow laughed scornfully. "And you shall be a slave in my house until you die." The Pole laughed more scornfully. "Untie my hands and feet and let us talk," he said. The chief made the sign; and when he was loosed Subienkow rolled a cigarette and lighted it. "This is foolish talk," said Makamuk.
There was a great bewilderment and silence, while slowly it began to dawn in their minds that there had been no medicine. The fur-thief had outwitted them. Alone, of all their prisoners, he had escaped the torture. That had been the stake for which he played. A great roar of laughter went up. Makamuk bowed his head in shame. The fur-thief had fooled him. He had lost face before all his people.
He signed for Makamuk, and that an interpreter who knew the coast dialect should be brought. "Oh, Makamuk," he said, "I am not minded to die. I am a great man, and it were foolishness for me to die. In truth, I shall not die. I am not like these other carrion." He looked at the moaning thing that had once been Big Ivan, and stirred it contemptuously with his toe. "I am too wise to die.
"Yakaga, give him your finger," Makamuk commanded. "There be plenty of fingers lying around," Yakaga grunted, indicating the human wreckage in the snow of the score of persons who had been tortured to death. "It must be the finger of a live man," the Pole objected. "Then shall you have the finger of a live man." Yakaga strode over to the Cossack and sliced off a finger.
Then can your strongest hunter take the axe and strike three times on my neck. You yourself can strike the three times." Makamuk stood with gaping mouth, drinking in this latest and most wonderful magic of the fur-thieves. "But first," the Pole added hastily, "between each blow I must put on fresh medicine. The axe is heavy and sharp, and I want no mistakes."
And my rifle must be returned to me. If you do not like the price, in a little while the price will grow." Yakaga whispered to the chief. "But how can I know your medicine is true medicine?" Makamuk asked. "It is very easy. First, I shall go into the woods " Again Yakaga whispered to Makamuk, who made a suspicious dissent. "You can send twenty hunters with me," Subienkow went on.
He thought of appealing to Makamuk, the head-chief; but his judgment told him that such appeal was useless. Then, too, he thought of bursting his bonds and dying fighting. Such an end would be quick. But he could not break his bonds. Caribou thongs were stronger than he. Still devising, another thought came to him.
Subienkow looked about him at the circle of savage faces that somehow seemed to symbolize the wall of savagery that had hemmed him about ever since the Czar's police had first arrested him in Warsaw. "Take your axe, Makamuk, and stand so. I shall lie down. When I raise my hand, strike, and strike with all your might. And be careful that no one stands behind you.
The Good Man Brown would hold the Raven tight whilst his brothers pluck the feathers." He raised his voice. "But so long as there is one Tana-naw to strike a blow, or one maiden to bear a man-child, the Raven shall not be plucked!" Gnob turned to a husky young man across the fire. "And what sayest thou, Makamuk, who art brother to Su-Su?" Makamuk came to his feet.
"Finish him, and then we will make the test. Here, you, Yakaga, see that his noise ceases." While this was being done, Subienkow turned to Makamuk. "And remember, you are to strike hard. This is not baby-work. Here, take the axe and strike the log, so that I can see you strike like a man." Makamuk obeyed, striking twice, precisely and with vigour, cutting out a large chip. "It is well."
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