"When did Kablunet men begin to have Eskimo sisters?"
"When they took all distressed women under their protection," returned
Leo promptly. "Every woman who needs my help is my sister," he added
with a look of self-sufficiency which he was far from feeling.
This new doctrine obviously puzzled the chief, who frowned, smiled, and
looked at the ground, as if in meditation. It seemed to afford great
comfort to Oblooria, who nestled closer to her champion. As for
Koyatuk, he treated the matter with an air of mingled surprise and
scorn, but dutifully awaited his father's pleasure.
Koyatuk was physically a fine specimen of a savage, but his spirit was
not equal to his body. Like his father he was over six feet high, and
firmly knit, being of both larger and stronger build than Leo, whom he
now regarded, and of course hated, as his rival--a contemptible one, no
doubt; still--a rival.
The warriors watched their chief in breathless suspense. To them it was
a thoroughly new and interesting situation. That a white stranger, tall
and active, but slender and very young, should dare single-handed to
defy not only their chief, but, as it were, the entire tribe, including
the royal family, was a state of things in regard to which their
previous lives afforded no parallel. They could not understand it at
all, and stood, as it were, in eager, open-mouthed, and one-legged
expectation.