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Turning his back at length upon the sea, Cheenbuk returned to the camp, lay down on the couch which he had made for himself on the opposite side of the fire from the canoe, and, in a few moments more, was in the health- and strength-restoring regions of Oblivion. The favouring calm continued until Cheenbuk with his companion arrived at Waruskeek.
They will be sure to kill you with slow tortures." "I care not. If I go back they will not be so likely to kill you. But listen to me, Adolay. I have a thought. If you come with me to my home in Waruskeek I will take you safe to my father's igloe, and you shall live with my mother and sister.
A few days later the whole tribe arrived at their summer quarters, and no civilised family of boys and girls ever arrived at their seaside home with a more genuine expression of noisy delight than that with which those Eskimos took possession of the turf-mud-and-stone-built huts of Waruskeek. It was not only the children who thus let loose their glee.
"My friends," he began, surveying the expectant assembly with a grave straightforward look, "when I went by myself to the Whale River, my intention was to hunt around and find out if there were many birds and beasts on lands near to it, and if many men lived or hunted there, for it came into my mind that this little island of Waruskeek is not the best place in the world to live in, for our tribe is continually increasing.
Then we will drive to the place where we have left our kayaks and oomiaks, some of us will go to Waruskeek, and some to pay a visit to the Fire-spouters at Whale River. Give me another lump, Nootka. The last was a little one, and I am hungry." The grandeur of Cheenbuk's plan, as compared with Aglootook's suggestion, was so great that the poor magician collapsed. Anteek looked at him.
"Yes, yes; is it not my own country?" Nootka sighed. "I wish I could love my country like you; but your country sticks. Mine melts away most of it every hot sun-time; and it is not easy to care much for things that melt." "But Waruskeek does not melt," said Adolay sympathetically.
He rose up and was about to resume the journey in a more hopeful frame of mind when a dark cloud on the horizon arrested his eye. After a long gaze he came to the conclusion that it was land. Two hours later he arrived at Waruskeek, and with a beating heart made straight for the huts, which could be plainly seen on the shore. But terrible disappointment was in store for him.
He did not however forsake his people, but frequently visited old Mangivik and his mother at Waruskeek, and the old folk sometimes returned the visit by spending a few months on the banks of the Ukon River. Anteek also elected to stay with the men-of-the-woods, being unable to forsake Cheenbuk, and of course young Uleeta remained with him.
"But it is disappointing to find that they have forsaken the old place, and it may be many days before we find them." "Father!" exclaimed Adolay at this point, a bright look overspreading her features, "mother must have left some sign on a piece of bark, as I did at Waruskeek." "I had expected as much," said the Indian, looking round the camp, "and I had thought to find it here."
Like other aborigines they had garbled it, however, and handed it down to posterity as Waruskeek, while the walruses, perhaps in order to justify the name, had kept up the custom of their forefathers, and continued to sun themselves there as in days of yore. Seals also abounded in the inlet, and multitudes of aquatic birds swarmed around its cliffs.
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