Partial explanation of Avic's queer behavior came next morning from the Eskimo himself. After breakfast, but before Moira had arrived to undertake her tour of nursing La Marr, Seymour brought the suspect out for examination. The Huskie beat him to the first question.
"When we go?"
Remembering that this identical inquiry had been last voiced by the native the previous afternoon, the sergeant surmised that it must have some significance.
"Go—go where?" he asked. "Where do you expect to go, Avic?"
The Eskimo made a sweeping gesture in a southerly direction. "Up big river," he mumbled gutturally. "See all world. Ride in smoke wagon on land, same like steamboat on water. Live in stone house, big as mountain. Good grub. Long sleeps. Warm like summer all time."
"And why should all that good luck come to you?" Seymour demanded. "Who's been putting such fool ideas into your head?"
Avic looked puzzled. There were words in the sergeant's questions that were new to him. The officer was about to simplify his query when the native blurted out the desired information, evidently sensing that some support was needed by his expectations.
"Nanatalmute boys, she kill white man. Red policeman take boys on long trip. Treat her fine, them boys. Stay away two, three freeze-up. Come back big mens."
Seymour groaned inwardly as he grasped the reference. The Nanatalmutes were the Eskimo who roam the Arctic foreshore to the west of the Mackenzie River. Some years ago an abusive trader had been killed by two youths of the tribe. The authorities of that day decided they should be taken "Outside" for trial. The court developed certain extenuating circumstances which resulted in penitentiary sentences for the pair. In prison, they learned to speak English and were given mechanical training. At term's end, they were returned to their band in this land of "midnight suns and noonday nights."
Theorists held that the two would spread a respect for the white man's greatness and power—that their tales of punishment would make the land safe for the interlopers of another race. The effect, Seymour well knew, had been different. The Nanatalmutes had reported that they had been royally treated. They described the wonders of provincial cities, the thrills of the railway travel, the surprising warmth, the palatial house in which they lived and countless other details that had impressed their childlike minds. Almost, did this mistake of the Law put a premium on white murder, so great was the envy of the two who had turned punishment into signal honor.