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erful frame of his youthful body had only gained in mass and left him the more capable of withstanding the demands which his life on the merciless plateau made upon his endurance. Julyman, too, was much the Julyman of bygone years. The only change in him was that opportunity had robbed him of many of those lapses he had been wont to indulge in. But he was still no nearer the glory of a halo. Oolak alone displayed the wear and tear of the life that was theirs. His body was slightly askew from the disaster of the return from the first visit to Unaga, and one leg was shorter than the other. But the effect of these things was only in appearance. His vigour of body remained unimpaired. His silence was even more profound. And his mastery of the trail dogs left him a source of endless admiration to his companions. Steve dipped some tea into a pannikin. "Oolak had a nightmare, I guess," he said, feeling that a gentle ridicule could do no harm. Julyman grinned his relief that the white man saw nothing serious in that which all Indians regard as the voice of the spirits haunting their world. "Oolak eat plenty, much," he observed slyly. Steve helped himself to meat from the pan and dipped some beans from the camp kettle beside the fire. "Dreams are damn-fool things, anyway," he said. Then he laughed, "Guess we've dreamed dreams these fourteen years. And we're still sitting around waiting for things to happen." Despite his concern Oolak tore at the meat with his sharp teeth, and ate with noisy satisfaction. "Him all fire. Burn up all things. Oh, yes. Bimeby we find him," he said doggedly. Steve was in the act of drinking. He paused, his pannikin remaining poised. "You guess----" "Him fire," said Oolak, wiping the grease from his lips on the sleeve of his furs. "Him big fires. Oolak know. Him not eat plenty. Him see this thing. The spirits show him so he know all time." Steve gulped his tea down, and set the pannikin on the ground. "That's crazy," he declared. "It's not spirits who show Oolak. It's as Julyman says. He eats plenty. So he dreams fool things that don't mean a thing. Oolak doesn't need to believe the spirits are busy around him when he sleeps." He laughed in the face of the unsmiling Oolak. But his laugh was cut short by the Indian's stolid response. "Boss white man know all things plenty," he said, with the patient calm of a mind made up. "He big man. Oh, yes. Him bigger as all Ind
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