positively that in a similar capacity he served the Western Union

when it attempted to put through its trans-Alaskan and Siberian
telegraph to Europe. Further, there was Joe Lamson, the whaling

captain, who, when ice-bound off the mouth of the Mackenzie, had
had him come aboard after tobacco. This last touch proves Thomas

Stevens's identity conclusively. His quest for tobacco was
perennial and untiring. Ere we became fairly acquainted, I learned

to greet him with one hand, and pass the pouch with the other. But
the night I met him in John O'Brien's Dawson saloon, his head was

wreathed in a nimbus of fifty-cent cigar smoke, and instead of my
pouch he demanded my sack. We were standing by a faro table, and

forthwith he tossed it upon the "high card." "Fifty," he said, and
the game-keeper nodded. The "high card" turned, and he handed back

my sack, called for a "tab," and drew me over to the scales, where
the weigher nonchalantly cashed him out fifty dollars in dust.

"And now we'll drink," he said; and later, at the bar, when he
lowered his glass: "Reminds me of a little brew I had up Tattarat

way. No, you have no knowledge of the place, nor is it down on the
charts. But it's up by the rim of the Arctic Sea, not so many

hundred miles from the American line, and all of half a thousand
God-forsaken souls live there, giving and taking in marriage, and

starving and dying in-between-whiles. Explorers have overlooked
them, and you will not find them in the census of 1890. A whale-

ship was pinched there once, but the men, who had made shore over
the ice, pulled out for the south and were never heard of.

"But it was a great brew we had, Moosu and I," he added a moment
later, with just the slightest suspicion of a sigh.

I knew there were big deeds and wild doings behind that sigh, so I
haled him into a corner, between a roulette outfit and a poker

layout, and waited for his tongue to thaw.
"Had one objection to Moosu," he began, cocking his head

meditatively--"one objection, and only one. He was an Indian from
over on the edge of the Chippewyan country, but the trouble was,

he'd picked up a smattering of the Scriptures. Been campmate a
season with a renegade French Canadian who'd studied for the

church. Moosu'd never seen applied Christianity, and his head was
crammed with miracles, battles, and dispensations, and what not he

didn't understand. Otherwise he was a good sort, and a handy man
on trail or over a fire.

"We'd had a hard time together and were badly knocked out when we
plumped upon Tattarat. Lost outfits and dogs crossing a divide in

a fall blizzard, and our bellies clove to our backs and our clothes
were in rags when we crawled into the village. They weren't much

surprised at seeing us--because of the whalemen--and gave us the
meanest shack in the village to live in, and the worst of their

leavings to live on. What struck me at the time as strange was
that they left us strictly alone. But Moosu explained it.

"'Shaman SICK TUMTUM,' he said, meaning the shaman, or medicine
man, was jealous, and had advised the people to have nothing to do

with us. From the little he'd seen of the whalemen, he'd learned
that mine was a stronger race, and a wiser; so he'd only behaved as

shamans have always behaved the world over. And before I get done,
you'll see how near right he was.

"'These people have a law,' said Mosu: 'whoso eats of meat must
hunt. We be awkward, you and I, O master, in the weapons of this

country; nor can we string bows nor fling spears after the manner
approved. Wherefore the shaman and Tummasook, who is chief, have

put their heads together, and it has been decreed that we work with
the women and children in dragging in the meat and tending the

wants of the hunters.'
"'And this is very wrong,' I made to answer; 'for we be better men,

Moosu, than these people who walk in darkness. Further, we should
rest and grow strong, for the way south is long, and on that trail

the weak cannot prosper.'"
"'But we have nothing,' he objected, looking about him at the

rotten timbers of the igloo, the stench of the ancient walrus meat
that had been our supper disgusting his nostrils. 'And on this

fare we cannot thrive. We have nothing save the bottle of "pain-
killer," which will not fill emptiness, so we must bend to the yoke

of the unbeliever and become hewers of wood and drawers of water.
And there be good things in this place, the which we may not have.

Ah, master, never has my nose lied to me, and I have followed it to
secret caches and among the fur-bales of the igloos. Good

provender did these people extort from the poor whalemen, and this
provender has wandered into few hands. The woman Ipsukuk, who

dwelleth in the far end of the village next she igloo of the chief,
possesseth much flour and sugar, and even have my eyes told me of

molasses smeared on her face. And in the igloo of Tummasook, the
chief, there be tea--have I not seen the old pig guzzling? And the

shaman owneth a caddy of "Star" and two buckets of prime smoking.
And what have we? Nothing! Nothing!'

"But I was stunned by the word he brought of the tobacco, and made
no answer.

"And Moosu, what of his own desire, broke silence: 'And there be
Tukeliketa, daughter of a big hunter and wealthy man. A likely

girl. Indeed, a very nice girl.'
"I figured hard during the night while Moosu snored, for I could

not bear the thought of the tobacco so near which I could not
smoke. True, as he had said, we had nothing. But the way became

clear to me, and in the morning I said to him: 'Go thou cunningly
abroad, after thy fashion, and procure me some sort of bone,

crooked like a goose-neck, and hollow. Also, walk humbly, but have
eyes awake to the lay of pots and pans and cooking contrivances.

And remember, mine is the white man's wisdom, and do what I have
bid you, with sureness and despatch.'

"While he was away I placed the whale-oil cooking lamp in the
middle of the igloo, and moved the mangy sleeping furs back that I

might have room. Then I took apart his gun and put the barrel by
handy, and afterwards braided many wicks from the cotton that the

women gather wild in the summer. When he came back, it was with
the bone I had commanded, and with news that in the igloo of

Tummasook there was a five-gallon kerosene can and a big copper
kettle. So I said he had done well and we would tarry through the

day. And when midnight was near I made harangue to him.
"'This chief, this Tummasook, hath a copperkettle, likewise a

kerosene can.' I put a rock, smooth and wave-washed, in Moosu's
hand. 'The camp is hushed and the stars are winking. Go thou,

creep into the chief's igloo softly, and smite him thus upon the
belly, and hard. And let the meat and good grub of the days to

come put strength into thine arm. There will be uproar and outcry,
and the village will come hot afoot. But be thou unafraid. Veil

thy movements and lose thy form in the obscurity of the night and
the confusion of men. And when the woman Ipsukuk is anigh thee,--

she who smeareth her face with molasses,--do thou smite her
likewise, and whosoever else that possesseth flour and cometh to

thy hand. Then do thou lift thy voice in pain and double up with
clasped hands, and make outcry in token that thou, too, hast felt

the visitation of the night. And in this way shall we achieve
honour and great possessions, and the caddy of "Star" and the prime

smoking, and thy Tukeliketa, who is a likely maiden.'
"When he had departed on this errand, I bided patiently in the

shack, and the tobacco seemed very near. Then there was a cry of
affright in the night, that became an uproar and assailed the sky.

I seized the 'pain-killer' and ran forth. There was much noise,
and a wailing among the women, and fear sat heavily on all.