an tactics roused the
Leader's ire. He got up and flew at them. They made it hot for him, but
still the Leader seemed to be doing pretty well for himself, when the
old Ingalik (whom the Boy had sent a child to summon) hobbled up with a
raw-hide whip, and laid it on with a practised hand, separating the
combatants, kicking them impartially all round, and speaking injurious
words.

"Are your two hurt?" inquired the future owner anxiously.

The old fellow shook his head.

"Fur thick," was the reassuring answer; and once more the Boy realised
that these canine encounters, though frequently ending in death, often
look and sound much more awful than they are.

As the Leader feigned to be going home, he made a dash in passing at
the stranger's fish. It was held tight, and the pirate got off with
only a fragment. Leader gave one swallow and looked back to see how the
theft was being taken. That surprising stranger simply stood there
laughing, and holding out the rest of a fine fat fish! Leader
considered a moment, looked the alien up and down, came back, all on
guard for sudden rushes, sly kicks, and thwackings, to pay him out. But
nothing of the kind. The Nigger dog said as plain as speech could make
it:

"You cheechalko person, you look as if you're actually offering me that
fish in good faith. But I'd be a fool to think so."

The stranger spoke low and quietly.

They talked for some time.

The owner of the two had shuffled off home again, with Spotty and Red
at his heels.

The Leader came quite near, looking almost docile; but he snapped
suddenly at the fish with an ugly gleam of eye and fang. The Boy nearly
made the fatal mistake of jumping, but he controlled the impulse, and
merely held tight to what was left of the salmon. He stood quite still,
offering it with fair words. The Leader walked all round him, and
seemed with difficulty to recover from his surprise. The Boy felt that
they were just coming to an understanding, when up hurries Peetka,
suspicious and out of sorts.

_"My dog!"_ he shouted. "No sell white man my dog. Huh! ho--_oh_ no!"
He kicked the Leader viciously, and drove him home, abusing him all the
way. The wonder was that the wolfish creature didn't fly at his
master's throat and finish him.

Certainly the stranger's sympathies were all with the four-legged one
of the two brutes.

"--something about the Leader--" the Boy said sadly, telling the
Colonel what had happened. "Well, sir, I'd gi