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"I think," said Mozwa, wiping his mouth with that familiar handkerchief the back of his hand "that there will be trouble in the camp before long, for when you are away that beast Magadar has too much power. He will try to make our young men go with him to fight the Eskimos!"
"Isquay is well," replied the old chief, and a barely perceptible sigh of relief escaped Nazinred. Then Mozwa asked about his wife and received a satisfactory answer. Still, it was obvious to both men, from the old chief's manner, that there was something wrong. "Adolay", said the old man, and stopped. "Dead?" asked Nazinred, with a look of alarm that he did not attempt to conceal.
Taking a button, or some such object, in his hand, and putting both hands behind his back, the friend began to bob his head and shoulders up and down in an idiotic fashion, at the same time chanting in a sing-song monotone, "Ho yo, yo ho, hi ya yoho!" for a considerable length of time, while Mozwa staked his blanket, a fine thick green one, purchased at Great Bear Lake.
Looking backward, Mozwa gave his friend an interrogative glance. Nazinred replied with an affirmative nod, and, all four dipping their paddles vigorously at the same moment, they shot out into the stream. Almost before the canoe was caught by the current it swung quickly into another eddy, which carried it up a few yards close under the frowning cliffs.
Back went the hands again, and the "yo-ho-ing" was continued. The new gun was the next stake. It also was lost; and thus the game was carried on far into the night, with smaller stakes, until Mozwa had lost almost all that he had brought with him gun, blanket, pipes, tobacco, flint and steel, fire-bag, and even his coat, so that he walked home a half-naked and nearly ruined man!
Spell-bound they waited until the sound of oars mingled with the gradually strengthening song. Then their fingers closed convulsively upon their weapons and they sprang up. "What does my son think?" "He thinks that the white man may be on the war-path, and it behoves the red-man like the serpent to creep into the grass and lie still." The elder savage shook his head. "No, Mozwa.
Adolay laughed heartily at this, and Cheenbuk joined her, feeling his nose at the same time, as if to make sure that its handsome proportions were not changed. "And look look, father!" resumed the girl, growing excited over the letter; "that is your friend Mozwa! I feel sure of it by the shape of his legs. Who could mistake his legs? Nobody is like mother. She does legs as well as faces.
However that may be, it is certain that the Indians bade their entertainers farewell with feelings of hearty good-will, and, leaving the lonely outpost behind them, set off on the return journey to their wilderness home. It was autumn before Nazinred and Mozwa drew near to their village.
While these events were taking place among the islands of the Arctic sea, the Indian chief Nazinred was slowly pushing his canoe southward in the direction of Great Bear Lake. He was accompanied, as we have said, by three like-minded comrades, one of whom was named Mozwa or Moose-deer from some fancied resemblance in him to that uncouth animal.
We forget the friend's stake, but it was probably supposed to be an equivalent. Suddenly the yo-ho-ing ceased, both hands, tightly closed, were brought to the front, and the whole party gazed at Mozwa with intense expectation. He was not long in making up his mind. He pointed to the left hand. It was opened, and found to be empty! The blanket was lost.
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