The lean face of the youth who had bearded the dreaded Windigo in their lair shaped a wide smile. He, too, would dance at the spring trade at Whale River, and lashed to stakes by his tent in the post clearing, a pair of priceless Ungavas would add their howls to the chorus when the dogs pointed their noses at the new moon.
CHAPTER II
THE END OF THE TRAIL
In his joy at his good luck, Marcel had momentarily forgotten the ancient feud between the Esquimo and the Cree. Then he realized his position. These rapids of the Salmon were an age-old fishing ground of the Esquimos, who, with their dogs, are called "Huskies." No birch-bark had ever run the broken waters behind him—no Indian hunted so far north. If among these people there were any who traded at Whale River where Cree and Esquimo met in amity, they would recognize the son of the old Company head man, André Marcel, and welcome him. But should they chance to be wild Huskies who did not come south to the post, they would mistake him for a Cree, and resenting his entering their territory, attack him.
Drawing his rifle from its skin case, he placed it at his feet and poled slowly toward the shore where a bedlam of howls from the dogs signalled his approach. The clamor quickly emptied the lodges scattered along the beach. A group of Huskies, armed with rifle and seal spear, now watched the strange craft. So close was the canoe that only by a miracle could Marcel hope to escape down-stream if they started shooting.
Alive to his danger, the Frenchman snubbed his boat, leaning on his pole, while his anxious eyes searched for a familiar figure in the skin-clad throng, who talked and gesticulated in evident excitement. But among them he found no friendly face.
Was it for this he had slaved overland to the Salmon and starved through the early spring—a miserable death; when he had won through to his goal—when the yelps of the dogs he sought rang in his ears? Surely, among these Huskies, there were some who traded at the post.
"Kekway!" he called, "I am white man from Whale River!"