of her fingers on
his arm she drew away from him. His face did not show his
disappointment, nor did he make a movement to keep her with him.

"Your people are expecting things of you," she said. "A little later, if
you ask me, I may dance with you to the music of the tom-toms."

He watched her as she went away with Nawadlook. She looked back at him
and smiled, and there was something in her face which set his heart
beating faster. She had been afraid aboard the ship, but she was not
afraid of tomorrow. Thought of it and the questions he would ask did not
frighten her, and a happiness which he had persistently held away from
himself triumphed in a sudden, submerging flood. It was as if something
in her eyes and voice had promised him that the dreams he had dreamed
through weeks of torture and living death were coming true, and that
possibly in her ride over the tundra that night she had come a little
nearer to the truth of what those weeks had meant to him. Surely he
would never quite be able to tell her. And what she said to him tomorrow
would, in the end, make little difference. She was alive, and he could
not let her go away from him again.

He joined the tom-tom beaters and the dancers. It rather amazed him to
discover himself doing things which he had never done before. His nature
was an aloof one, observing and sympathetic, but always more or less
detached. At his people's dances it was his habit to stand on the
side-line, smiling and nodding encouragement, but never taking a part.
His habit of reserve fell from him now, and he seemed possessed of a new
sense of freedom and a new desire to give physical expression to
something within him. Stampede was dancing. He was kicking his feet and
howling with the men, while the women dancers went through the muscular
movements of arms and bodies. A chorus of voices invited Alan. They had
always invited him. And tonight he accepted, and took his place between
Stampede and Amuk Toolik and the tom-tom beaters almost burst their
instruments in their excitement. Not until he dropped out, half
breathless, did he see Mary Standish and Keok in the outer circle. Keok
was frankly amazed. Mary Standish's eyes were shining, and she clapped
her hands when she saw that he had observed her. He tried to laugh, and
waved his hand, but he felt too foolish to go to her. And then the
balloon went up, a big, six-foot balloon, and with all its fire made
only a pale glow in the sky, and after a