Then a slight figure pressed itself through the group at the door. It was Kasba. Roy looked at her surprised, and smiled. Straightening herself, she faced Ocpic’s allies with outstretched hand and eyes aflame and stood as if warning them back, a veritable little fury. For a moment the Eskimos wavered, then they murmured together and moved as if to push past the girl.
Roy smiled grimly. He was conscious of feeling a slight exultation at the prospect of a conflict with the natives, for the old race antagonism was strong in him. He knew the moment of his life had come, that to show the least fear now was to lose command over these people forever. All depended upon a bold front.
Abruptly he motioned Broom back. Then he gently brushed Kasba aside. Stern and fearless he strode up to Ocpic, who never moved a muscle. With blazing eyes Roy pointed to the door. He looked particularly big in his wrath.
“Hilimee!” (Go!), he barked. The command was not one to be ignored. He seemed with his stern visage and flashing eyes to be very earnest indeed.
There was a tense silence. The two men gazed fixedly into each other’s eyes; then, as invariably happens, the native quailed before an unflinching outward manifestation of the stronger will. Ocpic’s eyes dropped sullenly. He turned and shuffled out. The group at the door had already melted away, as silently as it had appeared.
Roy turned to speak to Kasba, but found her gone. The danger past, she had vanished. The two white men silently gripped hands.
A few minutes later Sahanderry appeared with a trembling, scared face; so terrified was he at what had just transpired that he quaked with terror. He kept muttering to himself while he laid the table for breakfast. Evidently he expected Ocpic to take summary vengeance by a murderous act similar to one of which he was already declared guilty.
Having recovered the key, Roy decided to go alone to the trading-store to ascertain the extent of Ocpic’s peculations, and with this intention struggled into his hairy-coat and was about to leave the room when an enamelled plate fell with a loud clatter from Sahanderry’s trembling fingers to the floor. This drew Roy’s attention to the Indian’s state of extreme nervousness. He looked fixedly at him for a moment and then spoke.
“Sahanderry,” he said in a voice that made the man addressed spin round as if shot.
“Bekothrie!” gasped the Indian.