hunting-knife.

"'Look!' I cries, striking an attitude. 'Big Medicine. You watch my
smoke.'

"I pulled off my mittens, rolled back my sleeves, and made half-a-dozen
passes in the air.

"'Killisnoo!' I shouts. 'Killisnoo! Killisnoo!'

"I was making medicine, and they began to scare. Every eye was on me; no
time to find out that Tilly wasn't there. Then I called Killisnoo three
times again, and waited; and three times more. All for mystery and to
make them nervous. Chief George couldn't guess what I was up to, and
wanted to put a stop to the foolery; but the shamans said to wait, and
that they'd see me and go me one better, or words to that effect.
Besides, he was a superstitious cuss, and I fancy a bit afraid of the
white man's magic.

"Then I called Killisnoo, long and soft like the howl of a wolf, till the
women were all a-tremble and the bucks looking serious.

"'Look!' I sprang for'ard, pointing my finger into a bunch of
squaws--easier to deceive women than men, you know. 'Look!' And I
raised it aloft as though following the flight of a bird. Up, up,
straight overhead, making to follow it with my eyes till it disappeared
in the sky.

"'Killisnoo,' I said, looking at Chief George and pointing upward again.
'Killisnoo.'

"So help me, Dick, the gammon worked. Half of them, at least, saw Tilly
disappear in the air. They'd drunk my whiskey at Juneau and seen
stranger sights, I'll warrant. Why should I not do this thing, I, who
sold bad spirits corked in bottles? Some of the women shrieked.
Everybody fell to whispering in bunches. I folded my arms and held my
head high, and they drew further away from me. The time was ripe to go.
'Grab him,' Chief George cries. Three or four of them came at me, but I
whirled, quick, made a couple of passes like to send them after Tilly,
and pointed up. Touch me? Not for the kingdoms of the earth. Chief
George harangued them, but he couldn't get them to lift a leg. Then he
made to take me himself; but I repeated the mummery and his grit went out
through his fingers.

"'Let your shamans work wonders the like of which I have done this
night,' I says. 'Let them call Killisnoo down out of the sky whither I
have sent her.' But the priests knew their limits. 'May your _klooches_
bear you sons as the spawn of the salmon,' I says, turning to go; 'and
may your totem pole stand long in the land, and the smoke of your camp
rise always.'

"But if the beggars coul