CHUKCHE TREACHERY
The proposed hunt for "big yellow cats and little yellow men" did not come
off, at least not at the time appointed. Morning found the tundra, the
hills, everything, blotted out by a blinding, whirling blizzard. It was
such a storm as one experiences only in the Arctic. The snow, fine and
hard as granulated sugar, was piled high against the cabin. The door was
blocked. Exit could be had only through a window.
Dave Tower, in attempting to make his way to the storeroom to secure a
fresh supply of canned milk and evaporated eggs, found himself hopelessly
lost in the blinding snow clouds. Possessed of singular presence of mind,
he settled himself in the lee of a snow bank and waited. In time, a pencil
of yellow light came jabbing its way through the leaden darkness. His
companions had formed themselves in a circle and, with flash lights
blinking here and there, sought and found him. After that, they remained
within doors until the storm had spent its fury.
It was a strange world they looked upon when, after three days, they
ventured out once more. The snow was piled in ridges. Ten, fifteen, twenty
feet high, these ridges extended down the hillsides and along the tundra.
Through one of these, they tunneled to Mine No. 2, making an enclosed path
to the mine from the cabin.
"From now on, let her blow," laughed Johnny when the tunnel was finished;
"our work will go on just the same."
When the men were all back at work, Johnny thought once more of the big
yellow cat and the little yellow men. The storm had wiped out every trace
of his struggle with the men and every track of the cat. But the native
village? Might he not discover some trace of his assailants there? He
resolved to visit the village. Since his men were all employed, he would
go alone.
An exclamation of surprise escaped his lips as he rounded the point from
which the rows of dome-like igloos could be seen. Where there had been
nineteen or twenty homes, there were now sixty or seventy. What could this
mean? Could it be that the men who had attacked him but a few days before
were among these new arrivals? At first, he was tempted to turn back. But
then there came the reflection that Nepossok, the old chief who made this
his permanent home, was friendly to him. There would be little chance of
treachery in the broad light of day.
He hurried on and walked down the snow-packed streets of a northern nomad
village.
Reaching the old chief's tent, he threw back the flaps and entered. He was
soon seated on the sleeping platform of the large igloo, with the chief
sitting solemnly before him and his half naked children romping in one
corner.
"Many Chukche," said Johnny.
"Il-a-hoite-Chukche. Too many! Too many," grumbled the old man.
Johnny waited for him to go on.
Twisting the string of his muckluck (skin boot), the old man continued:
"What you think? Want'a dance and sing all a times these Chukche. No
want'a hunt. No want'a fish. Quick come no cow-cow (no food). Quick
starve. What you think?"
"Perhaps they think they can live off the white man," suggested Johnny.
The old man shot him a sharp glance.
"Eh--eh," he grunted.
"But they can't," said Johnny firmly. "You tell 'em no can do. White man,
plenty grub now. Many white men. Many months all a time work, no come open
water. No come grub. Long time, no grub. See! You speak Chukche, this."
"Eh--eh," the old man grunted again. Then as a worried expression came
over his face, "What you think? Twenty igloo mine. That one chief mine.
Many igloos not mine. No can say mine. T'other chief say do. Then do. Not
do, say mine. See? What you think?"
From the old chief's rather long speech, Johnny gathered that Nepossok was
chief over only twenty of the families of the village; that the others
were under another chief; that he could tell them to hunt and fish, to be
prepared for a food scarcity later, but that they would do as they pleased
about it.
Johnny left the igloo with a worried expression on his face. If these
natives had moved to this village close beside them with the notion that
they would be able to trade for or beg the food which he had stored in his
warehouse, they were doomed to disappointment. And having been
disappointed, doubtless they would become dangerous.
This last conclusion was verified as he went the rounds of the village
peering into every igloo. There were rifles in each one of them, good ones
too--high power hunting rifles for big game--lever action, automatic. In
every igloo he found men stretched out asleep, and this on a splendid day
for hunting. They were but waiting for the night, which they would spend
in wild singing, tom-tom drumming and naked dances.
Johnny did not find the people he had come to seek. In none of the igloos
did he see a single person resembling, in the least degree, the little
yellow men who had attacked him on the hill.
All this but confirmed his own opinion and that of Jarvis, that somewhere
in these hills there was hiding away a company of Orientals, spies of
their government, perhaps. But where could they be?
Johnny was not surprised, two days later, when, on coming out of his
storeroom, he found a dark-faced and ugly Chukche looking in.
"Plenty cow-cow," the man grimaced.
"Ti-ma-na" (enough), said Johnny.
"Wanchee sack flour mine."
"No," said Johnny, closing and locking the door.
The man departed with a sour look on his face. He returned within an hour.
With him was a boy. Between them they carried the most perfectly preserved
mastodon tusk Johnny had ever seen.
"Flour?" the man said, pointing to the tusk.
Johnny could not resist the temptation to barter for the tusk. He yielded.
The man carried his flour away in triumph.
After that, not a day passed but a half score or more of the natives came
sneaking about the cabin, the storeroom, and the mine, begging for food.
As the days wore on, as famine came poking his skeleton form into the
igloos of the improvident natives, the condition became truly serious.
Johnny dispatched a messenger inland to discover if it would be possible
to obtain deer meat from the Reindeer Chukches living there. When he found
that a few deer might be obtained, he began trading sparingly with the
coast natives. They had little to trade, and the little he could spare
would only postpone the disaster that seemed hanging over the camp like a
cloud. The natives would not hunt or fish and each day found them growing
more insolent and threatening.
This to the eager young miner was a great trial. Mining operations were
going on splendidly. Mine No. 2 yielded a richer pay dirt each day.
Indications were that in a very few days they would be mining the
mother-lode from that digging and would be storing away pure gold in moose
hide sacks, some to be sent to the men whose wealth had made the
expedition possible and some to the orphans of Vladivostok.
It was at this time that the native with the dark and frowning visage came
with the announcement that he had located some immense tusks of extinct
monsters, a short distance inland. He begged Johnny to go with him to look
at them and assured him that if they pleased him, they should be brought
to the coast for barter.
"All right, come sun to-morrow, I go," said Johnny.
"I better go along," said Pant, when the native had left.
"Go if you want to," said Johnny.
Next morning, just at dawn, the three men started on their quest for the
ancient ivory.
The way led first up the frozen river bed, then over low-lying hills to a
stretch of tundra. At the distant border of the tundra towered high
cliffs, flanked by snow-blown mountains. Toward these they journeyed,
tramping along in silence.
As they neared the cliffs, Johnny fancied that he saw some dark creatures
moving among the rocks. The distance was too great for him to know whether
they were human beings or animals.
It was with a creeping sense of danger and a feeling of thankfulness for
Pant's companionship, that, after arriving at the cliffs, he found himself
being led into a dark cave in a hill of limestone rock.
"U bogak ivory" (look, here is ivory). The native whispered the words as
if afraid the extinct monsters would waken from the dead and demand their
tusks.
He had lighted a single tallow candle which gave forth a sickly,
flickering light.
The place seemed fairly spooky. Only the pit-pats of their footsteps
wakened dull echoes through the vaulted cavern. Johnny could not help
feeling that there were more than three men in this cave. In vain he
strained his eyes to catch a glimpse of the walls to right and left of
him.
They had gone perhaps seventy-five paces into the darkness when there came
a sudden indistinguishable sound. Johnny thought it like the dropping of a
small rock, followed by a half suppressed exclamation. A chill crept up
his spine.
They moved on a few paces. Again came a sound. This time it was like two
steps taken in the dark. At the same instant, fingers gripped his arm. He
sprang into an attitude of defense.
"Stop," came a whisper in his ear. "Place's full of natives." It was Pant.
"When I knock the candle to the floor, you drop flat and crawl for the
door."
For a second Johnny stared in the dark at the place where Pant's face
should be. He caught again the puzzling gleam of yellow light.
"All right," he breathed.
Ten seconds later, as the candle executed a spiral curve toward the floor
and flickered out, Johnny dropped flat and began to crawl.