THE SUNLANDERS

Mandell is an obscure village on the rim of the polar sea. It is not

large, and the people are peaceable, more peaceable even than those

of the adjacent tribes. There are few men in Mandell, and many women;

wherefore a wholesome and necessary polygamy is in practice; the women

bear children with ardor, and the birth of a man-child is hailed with

acclamation. Then there is Aab-Waak, whose head rests always on one

shoulder, as though at some time the neck had become very tired and

refused forevermore its wonted duty.

The cause of all these things,--the peaceableness, and the polygamy,

and the tired neck of Aab-Waak,--goes back among the years to the time

when the schooner _Search_ dropped anchor in Mandell Bay, and when

Tyee, chief man of the tribe, conceived a scheme of sudden wealth. To

this day the story of things that happened is remembered and spoken

of with bated breath by the people of Mandell, who are cousins to the

Hungry Folk who live in the west. Children draw closer when the tale

is told, and marvel sagely to themselves at the madness of those who

might have been their forebears had they not provoked the Sunlanders

and come to bitter ends.

It began to happen when six men came ashore from the _Search_,

with heavy outfits, as though they had come to stay, and quartered

themselves in Neegah's igloo. Not but that they paid well in flour and

sugar for the lodging, but Neegah was aggrieved because Mesahchie, his

daughter, elected to cast her fortunes and seek food and blanket with

Bill-Man, who was leader of the party of white men.

"She is worth a price," Neegah complained to the gathering by the

council-fire, when the six white men were asleep. "She is worth a

price, for we have more men than women, and the men be bidding high.

The hunter Ounenk offered me a kayak, new-made, and a gun which he got

in trade from the Hungry Folk. This was I offered, and behold, now she

is gone and I have nothing!"

"I, too, did bid for Mesahchie," grumbled a voice, in tones not

altogether joyless, and Peelo shoved his broad-cheeked, jovial face

for a moment into the light.

"Thou, too," Neegah affirmed. "And there were others. Why is there

such a restlessness upon the Sunlanders?" he demanded petulantly. "Why

do they not stay at home? The Snow People do not wander to the lands

of the Sunlanders."

"Better were it to ask why they come," cried a voice from the

darkness, and Aab-Waak pushed his way to the front.

"Ay! Why they come!" clamored many voices, and Aab-Waak waved his hand

for silence.

"Men do not dig in the ground for nothing," he began. "And I have it

in mind of the Whale People, who are likewise Sunlanders, and who lost

their ship in the ice. You all remember the Whale People, who came to

us in their broken boats, and who went away into the south with dogs

and sleds when the frost arrived and snow covered the land. And you

remember, while they waited for the frost, that one man of them dug in

the ground, and then two men and three, and then all men of them, with

great excitement and much disturbance. What they dug out of the ground

we do not know, for they drove us away so we could not see. But

afterward, when they were gone, we looked and found nothing. Yet there

be much ground and they did not dig it all."

"Ay, Aab-Waak! Ay!" cried the people in admiration.

"Wherefore I have it in mind," he concluded, "that one Sunlander tells

another, and that these Sunlanders have been so told and are come to

dig in the ground."

"But how can it be that Bill-Man speaks our tongue?" demanded a little

weazened old hunter,--"Bill-Man, upon whom never before our eyes have

rested?"

"Bill-Man has been other times in the Snow Lands," Aab-Waak answered,

"else would he not speak the speech of the Bear People, which is like

the speech of the Hungry Folk, which is very like the speech of the

Mandells. For there have been many Sunlanders among the Bear People,

few among the Hungry Folk, and none at all among the Mandells, save

the Whale People and those who sleep now in the igloo of Neegah."

"Their sugar is very good," Neegah commented, "and their flour."

"They have great wealth," Ounenk added. "Yesterday I was to their

ship, and beheld most cunning tools of iron, and knives, and guns, and

flour, and sugar, and strange foods without end."

"It is so, brothers!" Tyee stood up and exulted inwardly at the

respect and silence his people accorded him. "They be very rich,

these Sunlanders. Also, they be fools. For behold! They come among us

boldly, blindly, and without thought for all of their great wealth.

Even now they snore, and we are many and unafraid."

"Mayhap they, too, are unafraid, being great fighters," the weazened

little old hunter objected.

But Tyee scowled upon him. "Nay, it would not seem so. They live to

the south, under the path of the sun, and are soft as their dogs are

soft. You remember the dog of the Whale People? Our dogs ate him the

second day, for he was soft and could not fight. The sun is warm and

life easy in the Sun Lands, and the men are as women, and the women as

children."

Heads nodded in approval, and the women craned their necks to listen.

"It is said they are good to their women, who do little work,"

tittered Likeeta, a broad-hipped, healthy young woman, daughter to

Tyee himself.

"Thou wouldst follow the feet of Mesahchie, eh?" he cried angrily.

Then he turned swiftly to the tribesmen. "Look you, brothers, this is

the way of the Sunlanders! They have eyes for our women, and take them

one by one. As Mesahchie has gone, cheating Neegah of her price, so

will Likeeta go, so will they all go, and we be cheated. I have talked

with a hunter from the Bear People, and I know. There be Hungry Folk

among us; let them speak if my words be true."

The six hunters of the Hungry Folk attested the truth and fell each

to telling his neighbor of the Sunlanders and their ways. There were

mutterings from the younger men, who had wives to seek, and from the

older men, who had daughters to fetch prices, and a low hum of rage

rose higher and clearer.

"They are very rich, and have cunning tools of iron, and knives, and

guns without end," Tyee suggested craftily, his dream of sudden wealth

beginning to take shape.

"I shall take the gun of Bill-Man for myself," Aab-Waak suddenly

proclaimed.

"Nay, it shall be mine!" shouted Neegah; "for there is the price of

Mesahchie to be reckoned."

"Peace! O brothers!" Tyee swept the assembly with his hands. "Let the

women and children go to their igloos. This is the talk of men; let it

be for the ears of men."

"There be guns in plenty for all," he said when the women had

unwillingly withdrawn. "I doubt not there will be two guns for each

man, without thought of the flour and sugar and other things. And it

is easy. The six Sunlanders in Neegah's igloo will we kill to-night

while they sleep. To-morrow will we go in peace to the ship to

trade, and there, when the time favors, kill all their brothers. And

to-morrow night there shall be feasting and merriment and division

of wealth. And the least man shall possess more than did ever the

greatest before. Is it wise, that which I have spoken, brothers?"

A low growl of approval answered him, and preparation for the attack

was begun. The six Hungry Folk, as became members of a wealthier

tribe, were armed with rifles and plenteously supplied with

ammunition. But it was only here and there that a Mandell possessed a

gun, many of which were broken, and there was a general slackness of

powder and shells. This poverty of war weapons, however, was relieved

by myriads of bone-headed arrows and casting-spears for work at a

distance, and for close quarters steel knives of Russian and Yankee

make.

"Let there be no noise," Tyee finally instructed; "but be there many

on every side of the igloo, and close, so that the Sunlanders may not

break through. Then do you, Neegah, with six of the young men behind,

crawl in to where they sleep. Take no guns, which be prone to go

off at unexpected times, but put the strength of your arms into the

knives."

"And be it understood that no harm befall Mesahchie, who is worth a

price," Neegah whispered hoarsely.

Flat upon the ground, the small army concentred on the igloo, and

behind, deliciously expectant, crouched many women and children, come

out to witness the murder. The brief August night was passing, and in

the gray of dawn could be dimly discerned the creeping forms of Neegah

and the young men. Without pause, on hands and knees, they entered the

long passageway and disappeared. Tyee rose up and rubbed his hands.

All was going well. Head after head in the big circle lifted and

waited. Each man pictured the scene according to his nature--the

sleeping men, the plunge of the knives, and the sudden death in the

dark.

A loud hail, in the voice of a Sunlander, rent the silence, and a

shot rang out. Then an uproar broke loose inside the igloo. Without

premeditation, the circle swept forward into the passageway. On the

inside, half a dozen repeating rifles began to chatter, and the

Mandells, jammed in the confined space, were powerless. Those at the

front strove madly to retreat from the fire-spitting guns in their

very faces, and those in the rear pressed as madly forward to the

attack. The bullets from the big 45:90's drove through half a dozen

men at a shot, and the passageway, gorged with surging, helpless men,

became a shambles. The rifles, pumped without aim into the mass,

withered it away like a machine gun, and against that steady stream of

death no man could advance.

"Never was there the like!" panted one of the Hungry Folk. "I did

but look in, and the dead were piled like seals on the ice after a

killing!"

"Did I not say, mayhap, they were fighters?" cackled the weazened old

hunter.

"It was to be expected," Aab-Waak answered stoutly. "We fought in a

trap of our making."

"O ye fools!" Tyee chided. "Ye sons of fools! It was not planned, this

thing ye have done. To Neegah and the six young men only was it given

to go inside. My cunning is superior to the cunning of the Sunlanders,

but ye take away its edge, and rob me of its strength, and make it

worse than no cunning at all!"

No one made reply, and all eyes centred on the igloo, which loomed

vague and monstrous against the clear northeast sky. Through a hole

in the roof the smoke from the rifles curled slowly upward in the

pulseless air, and now and again a wounded man crawled painfully

through the gray.

"Let each ask of his neighbor for Neegah and the six young men," Tyee

commanded.

And after a time the answer came back, "Neegah and the six young men

are not."

"And many more are not!" wailed a woman to the rear.

"The more wealth for those who are left," Tyee grimly consoled. Then,

turning to Aab-Waak, he said: "Go thou, and gather together many

sealskins filled with oil. Let the hunters empty them on the outside

wood of the igloo and of the passage. And let them put fire to it ere

the Sunlanders make holes in the igloo for their guns."

Even as he spoke a hole appeared in the dirt plastered between the

logs, a rifle muzzle protruded, and one of the Hungry Folk clapped

hand to his side and leaped in the air. A second shot, through the

lungs, brought him to the ground. Tyee and the rest scattered to

either side, out of direct range, and Aab-Waak hastened the men

forward with the skins of oil. Avoiding the loopholes, which were

making on every side of the igloo, they emptied the skins on the dry

drift-logs brought down by the Mandell River from the tree-lands to

the south. Ounenk ran forward with a blazing brand, and the flames

leaped upward. Many minutes passed, without sign, and they held their

weapons ready as the fire gained headway.

Tyee rubbed his hands gleefully as the dry structure burned and

crackled. "Now we have them, brothers! In the trap!"

"And no one may gainsay me the gun of Bill-Man," Aab-Waak announced.

"Save Bill-Man," squeaked the old hunter. "For behold, he cometh now!"

Covered with a singed and blackened blanket, the big white man leaped

out of the blazing entrance, and on his heels, likewise shielded, came

Mesahchie, and the five other Sunlanders. The Hungry Folk tried to

check the rush with an ill-directed volley, while the Mandells hurled

in a cloud of spears and arrows. But the Sunlanders cast their flaming

blankets from them as they ran, and it was seen that each bore on his

shoulders a small pack of ammunition. Of all their possessions, they

had chosen to save that. Running swiftly and with purpose, they broke

the circle and headed directly for the great cliff, which towered

blackly in the brightening day a half-mile to the rear of the village.

But Tyee knelt on one knee and lined the sights of his rifle on the

rearmost Sunlander. A great shout went up when he pulled the trigger

and the man fell forward, struggled partly up, and fell again. Without

regard for the rain of arrows, another Sunlander ran back, bent over

him, and lifted him across his shoulders. But the Mandell spearmen

were crowding up into closer range, and a strong cast transfixed the

wounded man. He cried out and became swiftly limp as his comrade

lowered him to the ground. In the meanwhile, Bill-Man and the three

others had made a stand and were driving a leaden hail into the

advancing spearmen. The fifth Sunlander bent over his stricken fellow,

felt the heart, and then coolly cut the straps of the pack and stood

up with the ammunition and extra gun.

"Now is he a fool!" cried Tyee, leaping high, as he ran forward, to

clear the squirming body of one of the Hungry Folk.

His own rifle was clogged so that he could not use it, and he called

out for some one to spear the Sunlander, who had turned and was

running for safety under the protecting fire. The little old hunter

poised his spear on the throwing-stick, swept his arm back as he ran,

and delivered the cast.

"By the body of the Wolf, say I, it was a good throw!" Tyee praised,

as the fleeing man pitched forward, the spear standing upright between

his shoulders and swaying slowly forward and back.

The little weazened old man coughed and sat down. A streak of red

showed on his lips and welled into a thick stream. He coughed again,

and a strange whistling came and went with his breath.

"They, too, are unafraid, being great fighters," he wheezed, pawing

aimlessly with his hands. "And behold! Bill-Man comes now!"

Tyee glanced up. Four Mandells and one of the Hungry Folk had rushed

upon the fallen man and were spearing him from his knees back to the

earth. In the twinkling of an eye, Tyee saw four of them cut down by

the bullets of the Sunlanders. The fifth, as yet unhurt, seized the

two rifles, but as he stood up to make off he was whirled almost

completely around by the impact of a bullet in the arm, steadied by

a second, and overthrown by the shock of a third. A moment later and

Bill-Man was on the spot, cutting the pack-straps and picking up the

guns.

This Tyee saw, and his own people falling as they straggled forward,

and he was aware of a quick doubt, and resolved to lie where he was

and see more. For some unaccountable reason, Mesahchie was running

back to Bill-Man; but before she could reach him, Tyee saw Peelo run

out and throw arms about her. He essayed to sling her across his

shoulder, but she grappled with him, tearing and scratching at his

face. Then she tripped him, and the pair fell heavily. When they

regained their feet, Peelo had shifted his grip so that one arm

was passed under her chin, the wrist pressing into her throat and

strangling her. He buried his face in her breast, taking the blows of

her hands on his thick mat of hair, and began slowly to force her off

the field. Then it was, retreating with the weapons of his fallen

comrades, that Bill-Man came upon them. As Mesahchie saw him, she

twirled the victim around and held him steady. Bill-Man swung the

rifle in his right hand, and hardly easing his stride, delivered the

blow. Tyee saw Peelo drive to the earth as smote by a falling star,

and the Sunlander and Neegah's daughter fleeing side by side.

A bunch of Mandells, led by one of the Hungry Folk, made a futile rush

which melted away into the earth before the scorching fire.

Tyee caught his breath and murmured, "Like the young frost in the

morning sun."

"As I say, they are great fighters," the old hunter whispered weakly,

far gone in hemorrhage. "I know. I have heard. They be sea-robbers and

hunters of seals; and they shoot quick and true, for it is their way

of life and the work of their hands."

"Like the young frost in the morning sun," Tyee repeated, crouching

for shelter behind the dying man and peering at intervals about him.

It was no longer a fight, for no Mandell man dared venture forward,

and as it was, they were too close to the Sunlanders to go back. Three

tried it, scattering and scurrying like rabbits; but one came down

with a broken leg, another was shot through the body, and the third,

twisting and dodging, fell on the edge of the village. So the

tribesmen crouched in the hollow places and burrowed into the dirt in

the open, while the Sunlanders' bullets searched the plain.

"Move not," Tyee pleaded, as Aab-Waak came worming over the ground to

him. "Move not, good Aab-Waak, else you bring death upon us."

"Death sits upon many," Aab-Waak laughed; "wherefore, as you say,

there will be much wealth in division. My father breathes fast and

short behind the big rock yon, and beyond, twisted like in a knot,

lieth my brother. But their share shall be my share, and it is well."

"As you say, good Aab-Waak, and as I have said; but before division

must come that which we may divide, and the Sunlanders be not yet

dead."

A bullet glanced from a rock before them, and singing shrilly, rose

low over their heads on its second flight. Tyee ducked and shivered,

but Aab-Waak grinned and sought vainly to follow it with his eyes.

"So swiftly they go, one may not see them," he observed.

"But many be dead of us," Tyee went on.

"And many be left," was the reply. "And they hug close to the earth,

for they have become wise in the fashion of righting. Further, they

are angered. Moreover, when we have killed the Sunlanders on the ship,

there will remain but four on the land. These may take long to kill,

but in the end it will happen."

"How may we go down to the ship when we cannot go this way or that?"

Tyee questioned.

"It is a bad place where lie Bill-Man and his brothers," Aab-Waak

explained. "We may come upon them from every side, which is not good.

So they aim to get their backs against the cliff and wait until their

brothers of the ship come to give them aid."

"Never shall they come from the ship, their brothers! I have said it."

Tyee was gathering courage again, and when the Sunlanders verified the

prediction by retreating to the cliff, he was light-hearted as ever.

"There be only three of us!" complained one of the Hungry Folk as they

came together for council.

"Therefore, instead of two, shall you have four guns each," was Tyee's

rejoinder.

"We did good fighting."

"Ay; and if it should happen that two of you be left, then will you

have six guns each. Therefore, fight well."

"And if there be none of them left?" Aab-Waak whispered slyly.

"Then will _we_ have the guns, you and I," Tyee whispered back.

However, to propitiate the Hungry Folk, he made one of them leader

of the ship expedition. This party comprised fully two-thirds of the

tribesmen, and departed for the coast, a dozen miles away, laden with

skins and things to trade. The remaining men were disposed in a large

half-circle about the breastwork which Bill-Man and his Sunlanders had

begun to throw up. Tyee was quick to note the virtues of things, and

at once set his men to digging shallow trenches.

"The time will go before they are aware," he explained to Aab-Waak;

"and their minds being busy, they will not think overmuch of the dead

that are, nor gather trouble to themselves. And in the dark of night

they may creep closer, so that when the Sunlanders look forth in the

morning light they will find us very near."

In the midday heat the men ceased from their work and made a meal of

dried fish and seal oil which the women brought up. There was some

clamor for the food of the Sunlanders in the igloo of Neegah, but Tyee

refused to divide it until the return of the ship party. Speculations

upon the outcome became rife, but in the midst of it a dull boom

drifted up over the land from the sea. The keen-eyed ones made out

a dense cloud of smoke, which quickly disappeared, and which they

averred was directly over the ship of the Sunlanders. Tyee was of the

opinion that it was a big gun. Aab-Waak did not know, but thought it

might be a signal of some sort. Anyway, he said, it was time something

happened.

Five or six hours afterward a solitary man was descried coming across

the wide flat from the sea, and the women and children poured out upon

him in a body. It was Ounenk, naked, winded, and wounded. The blood

still trickled down his face from a gash on the forehead. His left

arm, frightfully mangled, hung helpless at his side. But most

significant of all, there was a wild gleam in his eyes which betokened

the women knew not what.

"Where be Peshack?" an old squaw queried sharply.

"And Olitlie?" "And Polak?" "And Mah-Kook?" the voices took up the

cry.

But he said nothing, brushing his way through the clamorous mass and

directing his staggering steps toward Tyee. The old squaw raised the

wail, and one by one the women joined her as they swung in behind. The

men crawled out of their trenches and ran back to gather about Tyee,

and it was noticed that the Sunlanders climbed upon their barricade to

see.

Ounenk halted, swept the blood from his eyes, and looked about. He

strove to speak, but his dry lips were glued together. Likeeta fetched

him water, and he grunted and drank again.

"Was it a fight?" Tyee demanded finally,--"a good fight?"

"Ho! ho! ho!" So suddenly and so fiercely did Ounenk laugh that every

voice hushed. "Never was there such a fight! So I say, I, Ounenk,

fighter beforetime of beasts and men. And ere I forget, let me speak

fat words and wise. By fighting will the Sunlanders teach us Mandell

Folk how to fight. And if we fight long enough, we shall be great

fighters, even as the Sunlanders, or else we shall be--dead. Ho! ho!

ho! It was a fight!"

"Where be thy brothers?" Tyee shook him till he shrieked from the pain

of his hurts.