So after having fed the dog teams and eaten large quantities of frozen meat themselves, the two Eskimos crawled into their sleeping bags and were soon asleep notwithstanding the fact that their companion was absent. They had no means of knowing what had befallen him. He might even be dead.
But the Eskimos are fatalists. If they had been questioned about their seeming indifference they would have replied, "If he is dead, he is dead. We cannot help it. If God wants him to die, we can't stop it."
But very promptly with the first faint indication of the return of the arctic day, Tunkine set off on the back track to find their companion, while Tukshu remained to guard the three komatiks and the dog teams.
Tunkine had no difficulty in finding the tracks where Eiseeyou had started towards the coast on his explorations.
The wind had blown but slightly the night before, but even so the tracks were blown in in places and he had to follow partly by instinct, picking up the trail for a few hundred feet and then losing it. At last, after about three hours, he came to the precipitate mountain that Eiseeyou had climbed the day before. Here the trail was very plain as it had been made in a rather icy crust and the wind had kept it clear. So Tunkine followed without difficulty to the great boulder where Eiseeyou had met with his desperate adventure. If Eiseeyou had been astonished by meeting the Czar over the body of the dead musk ox, Tunkine was equally astonished to find both the dead Omingmong and the great white bear lying beside it. His astonishment gave way to a sickening fear when he discovered the tracks of Eiseeyou's deerskin boots beside the carcass of the bear. The great hunter had certainly been there, and yet he was nowhere to be seen. Had the huge bear killed and eaten him?
With much excitement, Tunkine examined the snow about. Yes, there were signs of a desperate struggle. Then his foot struck something hard and, kicking away the snow, he stooped and picked up Eiseeyou's rifle which he had neglected to take with him when he crawled under the bear.
While Tunkine was still standing pondering, with a great fear at his heart, the snow under the bear began wriggling about strangely.