and was rowed by them. The only man in it was a hideous,
wrinkled old savage, who sat in the stern to steer.

"Two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, and an odd one," counted Raed.
"Invite 'em up, captain."

Capt. Mazard got up on the bulwarks with a line in his hand, and,
holding it down over the stairs, began to bow and make signs to them
to come up. Perhaps they had not intended to actually come on board;
or perhaps, like their fairer sisters in other lands, they wanted to
be coaxed a little. At first they discreetly hesitated, glancing
alternately up at us, then round to their swarthy countrymen in the
_kayaks_. The most of them were seemingly young. There was but one
really ugly face; while four or five were evidently under fifteen. The
women were not quite so swarthy and dark as the men, and wore their
hair longer. Several of them had it pugged up behind. The captain and
Raed now redoubled their gestures of invitation. The Esquimau men on
board also began to jabber to them; at which, first two, then another,
and another, stood up, and with broad smiles essayed to mount the
stairs. Kit was standing close to me.

"Now, which are the prettiest ones?" he whispered. "Which are the
belles? Let's you and I secure the _belles_ away from Raed and Wade.
Those two back in the stern next to old ghoul-face--how do those
strike you? Aren't those the beauties? They've got on the prettiest
fur, anyway. Only look at those white gloves!"

The two Kit had pointed out were, as well as we could judge, the
fairest of the bevy.

"I believe Wade's got his eye on one of them!" muttered Kit. "We'll
oust him, though. Crowd along sharp when those two come up. Elbow Wade
out of the way. I'll push against you, and we'll squeeze him up
against the rail."

The others followed the first two, coming up the steps, taking the
captain's hand, and jumping off the rail to the deck. Our two came
last.

"Now's our time!" exclaimed Kit; and, making a bold push, we got in
ahead of the unsuspecting Wade, who immediately saw the sell, and
turned away in great disgust.

"I'll pay you for that!" muttered he.

But, having got face to face with the fur-clad damsels, we were not a
little perplexed how to make their acquaintance; for they were staring
at us with their small black eyes very round and wondering.

"Try a great long smile," said Kit.

We smiled very hard and persistently for some seconds. It seemed to
mollify their wonder somewhat.

"Ke