“Yes; I feel as if I could eat a white bear raw.”
“So I expected,” returned the little woman, with a laugh, as she placed a platter of broiled meat before her guest, who at once set to work.
Let us now return to Ippegoo. Having borrowed a sledge, he had driven off to the appointed place of rendezvous, before the arrival of Rooney and Angut, as fast as the team could take him. Arrived there, he found Ujarak awaiting him.
“You have failed,” said the wizard gravely.
“Yes, because Nunaga had left with her father and mother, and is now in the village. So is the Kablunet.”
Whatever Ujarak might have felt, he took good care that his countenance should not betray him. Indeed this capacity to conceal his feelings under a calm exterior constituted a large element of the power which he had obtained over his fellows. Without deigning a reply of any kind to his humble and humbled follower, he stepped quietly into the sledge, and drove away to the southward, intending to rejoin the hunters.
Arrived at the ground, he set off on foot over the ice until he found a seal’s breathing-hole. Here he arranged his spears, erected a screen of snow-blocks, and sat down to watch.
“Ippegoo,” he said, at last breaking silence, “we must not be beaten.”
“No, that must not be,” replied his pupil firmly.
“This time we have failed,” continued the wizard, “because I did not think that Okiok would leave his guest.”