nd the
currents rush this way and that and come together, and there are whirls
and sucks, and always are the currents changing and the face of the water
changing, so at any two times it is never the same. Moklan is my son,
wherefore he is brave man--"

"Was not my father brave man?" Zilla demanded.

"Thy father was brave man," Ebbits acknowledged, with the air of one who
will keep peace in the house at any cost. "Moklan is thy son and mine,
wherefore he is brave. Mayhap, because of thy very brave father, Moklan
is too brave. It is like when too much water is put in the pot it spills
over. So too much bravery is put into Moklan, and the bravery spills
over.

"The young men are much afraid of the bad water at Cambell Fort. But
Moklan is not afraid. He laughs strong, Ho! ho! and he goes forth into
the bad water. But where the currents come together the canoe is turned
over. A whirl takes Moklan by the legs, and he goes around and around,
and down and down, and is seen no more."

"Ai! ai!" wailed Zilla. "Crafty and wise was he, and my first-born!"

"I am the father of Moklan," Ebbits said, having patiently given the
woman space for her noise. "I get into canoe and journey down to Cambell
Fort to collect the debt!"

"Debt!" interrupted. "What debt?"

"The debt of Jones, who is chief trader," came the answer. "Such is the
law of travel in a strange country."

I shook my head in token of my ignorance, and Ebbits looked compassion at
me, while Zilla snorted her customary contempt.

"Look you, O White Man," he said. "In thy camp is a dog that bites. When
the dog bites a man, you give that man a present because you are sorry
and because it is thy dog. You make payment. Is it not so? Also, if
you have in thy country bad hunting, or bad water, you must make payment.
It is just. It is the law. Did not my father's brother go over into the
Tanana Country and get killed by a bear? And did not the Tanana tribe
pay my father many blankets and fine furs? It was just. It was bad
hunting, and the Tanana people made payment for the bad hunting.

"So I, Ebbits, journeyed down to Cambell Fort to collect the debt. Jones,
who is chief trader, looked at me, and he laughed. He made great
laughter, and would not give payment. I went to the medicine-man, what
you call missionary, and had large talk about the bad water and the
payment that should be mine. And the missionary made talk about other
things. He talk