inity, and the miners hurried
on. Time was precious, for food was disappearing and severe weather was
approaching.

Finally, at the close of a short winter's day in December, the three
dog-teams drew their sleds into the camp at Selawik. Flinging themselves
upon the snow in their harness the patient brutes looked appealingly
into their masters' faces. Then, as if by instinct they understood that
here they would stop for some days, tense and tired muscles relaxed,
each pointed furry head was laid between two weary little feet, and the
malamutes rested. They had well earned the rest.

Here in the midst of a forest of small firs the boughs of which were
still covered with snow as if it had just fallen, rose the chimneys of
perhaps a half dozen log cabins and igloos, the latter appearing to be
simply burrows from which smoke was slowly issuing; but being in reality
the winter homes of the Selawik Indians or Eskimo.

The latter usually lived in filth and squalor, it being their habit to
perform only the most necessary labor, and that, too, with the least
amount of effort. The women were the workers, performing the major part
of every duty.

In the igloo of the shaman, or medicine man, however, it was different.
The old native had lost his first wife and married another and younger
one, the pretty woman spoken of by wide-mouthed Curley in the Keewalik
roadhouse some days before. She was a full blooded Eskimo, as was the
shaman, but had enjoyed the advantages of travel, having visited in the
Nome country; remaining for a time also in the mission house at
Kotzebue.

[Illustration: _The pretty woman ... was a full-blooded Eskimo_]

Among the Selawiks she was accounted a beauty. Her cheeks were rosy
though high-boned, her skin dark but clear, and her lips, not too
full for symmetry, repeated the tint of her cheeks artistically. She was
fond of weaving bright bits of color into the two long braids of black
hair, and decorating in many different ways her fur parkies and mukluks.
She was proud of keeping her house and person as tidy as possible, while
her versatility allowed her the use of many English words and sentences.

It was not long after his arrival in camp the year before, that the
young prospector and miner, Gibbs by name, began looking upon the wife
of the old shaman, Kuiktuk, in a way that boded trouble for someone.

The old Eskimo was not slow to perceive it. It was not his custom to
talk much, but he was often