; and straight and true, he followed the sudden scent to his
master's head. He sniffed it gingerly at first and licked the forehead
with his red lolling tongue. Then he sat abruptly down, pointed his
nose up at the first faint star, and raised the long wolf-howl.

This brought Su-Su to herself. She glanced across at Keesh, who had
unsheathed the Russian knife and was watching her intently. His face
was firm and set, and in it she read the law. Slipping back the hood
of her parka, she bared her neck and rose to her feet There she paused
and took a long look about her, at the rimming forest, at the faint
stars in the sky, at the camp, at the snow-shoes in the snow--a last
long comprehensive look at life. A light breeze stirred her hair from
the side, and for the space of one deep breath she turned her head and
followed it around until she met it full-faced.

Then she thought of her children, ever to be unborn, and she walked
over to Keesh and said, "I am ready."

THE DEATH OF LIGOUN

Blood for blood, rank for rank.

--_Thlinket Code_.

"Hear now the death of Ligoun--"

The speaker ceased, or rather suspended utterance, and gazed upon me
with an eye of understanding. I held the bottle between our eyes and
the fire, indicated with my thumb the depth of the draught, and shoved
it over to him; for was he not Palitlum, the Drinker? Many tales had
he told me, and long had I waited for this scriptless scribe to speak
of the things concerning Ligoun; for he, of all men living, knew these
things best.

He tilted back his head with a grunt that slid swiftly into a gurgle,
and the shadow of a man's torso, monstrous beneath a huge inverted
bottle, wavered and danced on the frown of the cliff at our backs.
Palitlum released his lips from the glass with a caressing suck and
glanced regretfully up into the ghostly vault of the sky where played
the wan white light of the summer borealis.

"It be strange," he said; "cold like water and hot like fire. To
the drinker it giveth strength, and from the drinker it taketh away
strength. It maketh old men young, and young men old. To the man
who is weary it leadeth him to get up and go onward, and to the man
unweary it burdeneth him into sleep. My brother was possessed of the
heart of a rabbit, yet did he drink of it, and forthwith slay four of
his enemies. My father was like a great wolf, showing his teeth to all
men, yet did he drink of it and was shot through the back, runni