A pack of shaggy dogs, followed by three natives, came out and stared at the whaleboat. One dog crept down the beach and sniffed Stirling's native boots, then raised his snout and called a wolf's long howl of welcome.
A rude door was opened in the larger shack, and the chief stood revealed in the glow of the inner fire, about which native women were squatted. Stirling advanced and held out his hand, touching the chief on the shoulder. "You remember me," he said. "Me ice pilot of the Beluga. You got any whalebone to trade?"
The chief's face cleared, and he voiced a noisy welcome. He had no whalebone; furs he showed and also tusks. Some of these were carved with running men and spouting whales.
It was after dawn when Stirling gave the order to run out the whaleboat and make for the Pole Star. The chief, his family, and a score of natives waved a silent farewell, standing on the beach until the boat turned a ledge of rock and vanished into the smooth waters of the Strait.
Stirling was steering as the light boat swung under the Pole Star's stern and glided alongside. He glanced up at the overhanging poop where lights showed through the portholes. Out of one an arm reached and waved, and he heard a low-voiced warning. It was muffled and indistinct, but it was a girl's tones which warned. He had but time to swing the tiller when the boat scraped against the whaler's sheathing and Eagan caught a dangling fall.
[CHAPTER XVI—FROM HIS POCKET]
The Ice Pilot reached the deck by way of the chains in the waist, and saw that the entire crew had gathered between the galley house and the break of the poop.
Marr was with them. He wheeled, strutted over the planks, and planted himself before Stirling. "What did you find at East Cape?" he asked.
Stirling doubled his fists and stepped back. "Little or nothing," he said, glancing over the skipper's slight shoulder and meeting the eyes of the crew which seemed suddenly hostile. "Little or nothing," he repeated, simply. "There's pelts there and ivory, but no bone. I told them we had no whisky to trade."
"You did?"