Chapter Nine.
Shows that the Wise are a Match for the Wicked, and exhibits Tumbler and Pussi in Danger.
When Red Rooney and his friend reached the village, and found that most of the men had gone south to hunt, and that Nunaga was living in peace with her mother in her father’s town mansion, their fears were greatly relieved, although Angut was still rendered somewhat anxious by the suspicion that mischief of some sort was brewing. Being resolved if possible to discover and counteract it, he told Rooney that he meant to continue his journey southward, and join the hunters.
“Good. I will rest here till you return,” said the seaman, “for I feel that I’m not strong enough yet for much exertion.”
“But Ridroonee promised to dwell with me,” returned Angut, somewhat anxiously.
“So I did, and so I will, friend, when you come back. At present you tell me your hut is closed because you have no wife—no kinswoman.”
“That is true,” returned the Eskimo; “my mother is dead; my father was killed; I have no brothers, no sisters. But when I am at home old Kannoa cooks for me. She is a good woman, and can make us comfortable.”
“Just so, Angut. I’ll be content to have the old woman for a nurse as long as I need one. Good luck to you; and, I say, keep a sharp look-out on Ujarak. He’s not to be trusted, if I am any judge of men’s faces.”