Dick, Sandy, and Toma all became proficient, during the moonlight period, in a game of throw and catch which the Eskimos played. It was great fun and required no little skill. A long stick, perforated with small holes was employed, together with a walrus tusk, sharpened to a point. The stick was thrown into the air and caught in one of the holes upon the ivory point.
There were also foot races and snowshoe races in which the mounted police joined, along with the Eskimos and the boys. Weight lifting, wrestling, and other tests of strength were also favorite pastimes of the Eskimos and were invaluable in counteracting the depressing effects of the moonlight and the eternal darkness.
Constable Sloan told them that the moon would remain in the sky from eight to ten days. A storm fell upon them, however, after seven days and nights of moonlight, and they were all forced to hibernate in their igloos to escape the bitter cold and heavy darkness.
During the second period of utter darkness, the thermometers all froze and burst, except those especially designed for use in the Arctic. Sandy fell sick with a bad cold that threatened to develop into pneumonia, and lay abed two weeks before Dick’s continuous nursing brought his chum through safely.
Bundled in furs hour after hour, in their sleeping bags and out, all suffered immeasurably from the close and stifling air of the igloos. The Eskimos rubbed themselves with oil in order to soften their skins and file their pores, but it was some time before the boys could bring themselves to apply the messy stuff in place of their old friend soap and water. But as soon as they did, they felt much better. For their clothing no longer chaffed them and the bite of the low temperature was considerably lessened.
Moonshine Sam became a greater trial with the passing of every hour. He lapsed into strange spells that seemed to be brought on by the oppressive darkness and the terrible hardships he had weathered while with Mistak.
“I’ll git him, er he’ll git me,” he would mumble, starting up out of a stupid trance. Then he would clench and unclench his red hands, and gnash his yellow teeth in a frightful rage.
He finally grew so violent that the policemen no longer would permit the boys to take their turns watching him, doing it all among the three of them.
I’d hate to see him and Mistak come to blows, Corporal Thalman shuddered, after coming off of a two-hour watch in Moonshine Sam’s igloo. “One or both of them would pass in his checks before the fight was over. I guess the white Eskimo is pretty hard on the men that desert him.”
The second period of moonlight came at an inopportune time. A dense film of clouds obscured it for four days and the ghostly white snow fields were almost as dark as when there was no moon. But it finally cleared off, only to reveal more trouble. The dogs were dying from attacks of madness. Dick and Sandy counted twenty-two dead in the snow, some their own, some belonging to the Eskimos.