was not well to offend the strangers. During future
seasons they might not come again, as they threatened, with ammunition
and guns. This the natives feared as a calamity.

"Bring some crackers--tea," Olafaksoah paused. Ootah watched Annadoah
nestling near the "white trader." He had forgotten all about the
sledges of meat. He did not hear Olafaksoah. He still continued
shaking his head.

"I'll be liberal with you, son," Olafaksoah indulgently increased his
offer.

Six more boxes of ammunition, more tea and crackers were added to the
pile.

Ootah again mechanically shook his head. Amid all of those about him,
he saw only the face of Annadoah, golden as sunlight and pink as the
lichen blossoms of spring. Through her open _ahttee_, or fur garment,
he saw her breasts as tender as those of eider-feathered birds. The
sight of her melted his heart, the streams of spring were loosened
within him. Yet, with an agonized pang, he observed her gaze adoringly
and eagerly at the tall stranger's hard face; he saw her quiver at the
sound of his harsh, gruff voice. Olafaksoah's brutal masculinity for
the time dominated the shrinking femininity of the girl. Ootah saw
Annadoah beseechingly, almost fawningly, touch the white chief's horny
hand and nestle it close against her cheek.

Olaf, the trader, was oblivious to this.

"Greedy, eh? Well, we need the meat! If we're goin' to stay here to
chance hunting our dogs got to be fed!" More supplies were brought.
Still Ootah did not speak.

The white chief presently gazed hard at Ootah. Then his eyes
brightened with amused mirth. He saw the despairing, yearning gaze of
the youth toward the girl he had selected to favor.

"Ha, ha, ha!" he laughed good-naturedly. "I see. I've keel-hauled
your Romeo stunt, eh? Want the stuff?" He kicked the supplies
interrogatively.

Ootah sadly shook his head. He dully heard the vulgar gibes of the
white men and the mocking laughter of Maisanguaq.

One of the natives began beating a drum. Ootah giddily caught an
evanescent vision of women dancing with reeling traders. He heard
Olafaksoah as he entered Annadoah's tent laughing heartily.

The thought of Annadoah in the embrace of the big blond man, of her
face pressed to his in the white men's strange kiss of abomination,
aroused in Ootah a sense of violation, an instinctive repugnance akin
to the horror a native feels for the dead. All the ardent hopes of his
life for many mo