plishments would be rated very high among the
fair Esquimaux," said Raed. "Not to be able to catch seals is deemed a
great disgrace with them. Our going to them to beg seal-blubber would
be a very black mark. We should be looked upon much in the light of
paupers. No young Husky thinks of proposing to his lady-love till he
has become an expert seal-catcher."

"It seems hard not to be thought eligible even by a Husky family," Kit
observed. "But let's go over there and see what we can do. If we can't
trade with them, we might lay them under contribution by force of
arms. What say to beginning our career as conquerors by subjugating
that island of Esquimaux, and levying a seal-tax? That's the way our
Saxon ancestors first entered England. Has the sanction of history,
you see,--as far down even as the ex-emperor Napoleon III."

"You can't be in earnest," said Raed, suddenly looking round to him.

"I am," said Kit. "Decidedly the easiest way (for us) to deal with
them. If we were to go over there with a show of authority, they
wouldn't make much resistance, I'm very sure. We would take possession
of their _oomiak_. That would hold them to the island. They couldn't
get off without that,--at least, the women and children couldn't; and
the men would not desert their families."

"Now, there's a scheme of rapine worthy of Caesar!" sneered Raed. "Kit,
I am ashamed of you!"

"I don't care. We're in a tight place. I don't mean them any harm.
But, if we are going to be dependent on them for our supplies, it will
be much better for us to have them under our authority. They're a mere
set of ignorant heathens. We know more than they do; and it is but
fair that the wisest should govern."

"That's the very argument the old piratical sea-kings of Norway used
to use!" Raed exclaimed. "It's about a thousand years behind civilized
times!"

"Not so far behind the times as that, I guess," Kit replied. "But I
don't care: this is a force-put with us. We don't want to place
ourselves in the power of those savages. Yet we need their
assistance,--assistance for which we will repay them well when 'The
Curlew' comes,--if it comes. Now, I say it is best for us, and will be
better for them, to have them do as we want them to while we are on
their island."

"In a word, you propose to make slaves of them," remarked Raed. "You
mean to deprive them of their liberty."

"Yes, to a certain extent, I do."

"I am sorry to hear you talk in this way. I