“Where goes Nunaga to-day?” he asked quietly, on reaching the sledge.
“To Moss Bay,” answered Nunaga.
“Has Nunaga forgotten the road?” asked Ujarak, with a slight look of surprise. “This is not the way to Moss Bay.”
“It is not far out of the way,” said Kabelaw, who was the more self-assertive of the two lying sisters; “we go to visit a trap, and have no time to waste with you.”
As she spoke she seized the heavy Eskimo whip out of Nunaga’s hand, and brought it smartly down on the backs of the whole team, which started off with a yelp, and also with a bound that well-nigh left Tumbler and Pussi behind. But she was not quick enough for Ujarak, who exclaimed with a laugh, as he leaped on to the sledge and assumed the place of driver—
“I too am fond of trapping, and will go with you.”
He took the whip from Kabelaw, and guided the team.
A few minutes, at the speed they were going, brought them close to a point or cape which, in the form of a frowning cliff two or three hundred feet high, jutted out into the sea. To round this, and place the great cape between them and the village, was Ujarak’s aim. The ice was comparatively smooth and unbroken close to the land.
“See!” exclaimed Nunaga, pointing towards the bushes on shore; “the trap is there. That is the place.”
Ujarak paid no heed to her. The die was cast. He had taken the first step, and must now go through with it at all hazards. Plying the cruel whip, so as to make the dogs run at their utmost speed, he drove on until the other side of the cape was gained. Then he relaxed the speed a little, for he knew that no shriek, however loud, could penetrate the cliffs that lay between him and the Eskimo village.