these Sunlanders. Also, they be fools. For behold! They come among us
boldly, blindly, and without thought for all of their great wealth.
Even now they snore, and we are many and unafraid."

"Mayhap they, too, are unafraid, being great fighters," the weazened
little old hunter objected.

But Tyee scowled upon him. "Nay, it would not seem so. They live to
the south, under the path of the sun, and are soft as their dogs are
soft. You remember the dog of the Whale People? Our dogs ate him the
second day, for he was soft and could not fight. The sun is warm and
life easy in the Sun Lands, and the men are as women, and the women as
children."

Heads nodded in approval, and the women craned their necks to listen.

"It is said they are good to their women, who do little work,"
tittered Likeeta, a broad-hipped, healthy young woman, daughter to
Tyee himself.

"Thou wouldst follow the feet of Mesahchie, eh?" he cried angrily.
Then he turned swiftly to the tribesmen. "Look you, brothers, this is
the way of the Sunlanders! They have eyes for our women, and take them
one by one. As Mesahchie has gone, cheating Neegah of her price, so
will Likeeta go, so will they all go, and we be cheated. I have talked
with a hunter from the Bear People, and I know. There be Hungry Folk
among us; let them speak if my words be true."

The six hunters of the Hungry Folk attested the truth and fell each
to telling his neighbor of the Sunlanders and their ways. There were
mutterings from the younger men, who had wives to seek, and from the
older men, who had daughters to fetch prices, and a low hum of rage
rose higher and clearer.

"They are very rich, and have cunning tools of iron, and knives, and
guns without end," Tyee suggested craftily, his dream of sudden wealth
beginning to take shape.

"I shall take the gun of Bill-Man for myself," Aab-Waak suddenly
proclaimed.

"Nay, it shall be mine!" shouted Neegah; "for there is the price of
Mesahchie to be reckoned."

"Peace! O brothers!" Tyee swept the assembly with his hands. "Let the
women and children go to their igloos. This is the talk of men; let it
be for the ears of men."

"There be guns in plenty for all," he said when the women had
unwillingly withdrawn. "I doubt not there will be two guns for each
man, without thought of the flour and sugar and other things. And it
is easy. The six Sunlanders in Neegah's igloo will we kill to-night
while they sleep. To-morrow will we go in pea