ody one. These,
therefore, with the children, were left in charge of a small body of the
big boys of the tribe, with the old men.

The weather was fine, the sea smooth, and the arms of the invading host
strong. It was not long before the sea that separated Poloe Island from
Flatland was crossed.

Towards sunset of a calm and beautiful day they sighted land. Gently,
with noiseless dip of paddle, they glided onward like a phantom fleet.

That same evening Leo and Oblooria sat by the couch of Grabantak,
nursing him. The injury received by the chief from the whale had thrown
him into a high fever. The irritation of enforced delay on his fiery
spirit had made matters worse, and at times he became delirious. During
these paroxysms it required two men to hold him down, while he indulged
in wild denunciations of his Poloe foes, with frequent allusions to
dread surgical operations to be performed on the body of Amalatok--
operations with which the Royal College of Surgeons is probably
unacquainted. Leo, whose knowledge of the Eskimo tongue was rapidly
extending, sought to counteract the patient's ferocity by preaching
forgiveness and patience. Being unsuccessful, he had recourse to a
soporific plant which he had recently discovered. To administer an
overdose of this was not unnatural, perhaps, in a youthful doctor.
Absolute prostration was not the precise result he had hoped for, but it
_was_ the result, and it had the happy effect of calming the spirit of
Grabantak and rendering him open to conviction.

Fortunately the Flatlanders were on the look-out when the men of Poloe
drew near. One of the Flatland braves was returning from a fishing
expedition at the time, saw the advancing host while they were yet well
out at sea, and came home at racing speed with the news.

"Strange that they should come to attack _us_," said Teyma to Leo at the
council of war which was immediately called. "It has always, up to this
time, been our custom to attack _them_."

"Not so strange as you think," said Anders, who now, for the first time,
mentioned the sending of the message to Poloeland.

Black looks were turned on the interpreter, and several hands wandered
towards boots in search of daggers, when the prime minister interfered.

"You did not well, Unders, to act without letting us know," he said with
grave severity. "We must now prepare to meet the men of Poloe, whether
they come as friends or foes. Let the young men arm.