adar, starting forward, "we will get our guns and go
after them. The young men have long wished for a chance of revenge."

"The young men hev wished for nothing o' the sort," cried MacSweenie,
with a fierce expression in his blue eyes that was very impressive.
"There iss no wan here wants to fecht but yourself, Magadar; but I will
not disappoint ye. If you must fecht wi' some wan, ye shall fecht wi'
me. But it iss jokin' ye are.--Come now, men; these Eskimos hev come
here on a veesit, an' full well do I know that there's not an Indian
tribe in all the land equal to the Dogribs for hospitality; so you'll go
and get ready a feast for our veesitors, an' I'll gie you some goot
things out o' the store to help it."

Whatever Magadar thought about this address he shrouded his feelings
behind an air of impenetrable and stern reserve; for he saw that the
young men sympathised with the trader. Nazinred also, in a few words,
helped to confirm their sympathy by telling them that the
eaters-of-raw-flesh were not a war-party, but had brought some of their
women and old people along with them. The end of it was that a shot was
fired as a preconcerted signal for the Eskimos to advance. In a few
minutes the kayaks and oomiaks came sweeping round the point and made
straight for the landing-place.

The reception of the men-of-the-ice by the traders was of course hearty
and sincere, but the hereditary ill-will of the Indians was not quite
overcome at the first. It was not until there had been several
meetings, and a feast in the fort, and Donald Mowat's violin had
exercised its soothing influence on the savage breasts, that harmony was
produced in some degree between the two parties.

At length MacSweenie began to see his way to the establishment of a
permanent peace, and he made arrangements to have a great palaver, a
solemn treaty, and a grand feast in connection with it.

"You must know, Tonal'," he said one evening when in consultation with
his interpreter in the privacy of his own room, "I hev got a plan in my
head which iss calcoolated to make things go smooth, if anything will."

He paused rather a long time, and as Mowat looked at him in expectation
of hearing more, it struck him that the deepened bronze on his chief's
face, and the slight motion of his shoulders, indicated suppressed
laughter. But the Orkney-man was much too sedate a character to express
undue curiosity. He waited patiently.

"Yes, Tonal'," said th