mixed brown and white plumage of
summer, whirred swiftly over him and took refuge among the rocky heights
of the interior, none of which heights rose above three hundred feet.
Eider-ducks, chattering kittiwakes, and graceful tern, auks, guillemots,
puffins, geese, and even swans, swarmed on the islands, far and near,
while seals, whales, narwhals, dolphins, and grampuses, revelled in the
sea, so that the Arctic world appeared almost overcharged with animal
life.

Of course the noise of their cries and evolutions would have been great
had not distance lent enchantment to sound as well as view. To Leo
there seemed even a sort of restfulness in the voices of the innumerable
wild-fowl. They were so far off, most of them, that the sounds fell on
his ear like a gentle plaint, and even the thunderous plash of the great
Greenland whale was reduced by distance to a ripple like that which fell
on the shore at his feet.

While he was meditating, Anders joined him and responded heartily to his
salutation, but Anders was not in a poetical frame of mind that morning.
His thoughts had been already turned to an eminently practical subject.

"I'm tole," said he, seating himself beside our hero, "dat Grabantak
holds a talk 'bout fighting."

"And a council of war," said Leo. "I know what the result of that will
be. When leaders like Grabantak and Amalatok decide for war, most of
the people follow them like a flock of sheep. Although most of the
people never saw this miserable island--this Puiroe--and know, and care,
nothing about it, you'll see that the Flatlanders will be quite
enthusiastic after the council, and ready to fight for it to the bitter
end. A very bitter end it is, indeed, to see men and women make fools
of themselves about nothing, and be ready to die for the same! Will
Grabantak allow us to be present at the council, think you?"

"Ho yis. He send me to say you muss come."

Leo was right. Nothing could surpass the impetuosity of Grabantak,
except the anxiety of many of the Flatlanders to be led by the nose.
Was not the point in question one of vital importance to the wellbeing
of the community--indeed of the whole Arctic world? Teyma mildly asked
them what _was_ the point in question, but not a soul could tell, until
Grabantak, starting up with furious energy, manufactured a "point," and
then explained it in language so intricate, yet so clear, that the whole
council stood amazed at their never having seen i