"Him all fire. Burn up all things. Oh, yes. Bimeby we find him," he said doggedly.
Steve was in the act of drinking. He paused, his pannikin remaining poised.
"You guess——"
"Him fire," said Oolak, wiping the grease from his lips on the sleeve of his furs. "Him big fires. Oolak know. Him not eat plenty. Him see this thing. The spirits show him so he know all time."
Steve gulped his tea down, and set the pannikin on the ground.
"That's crazy," he declared. "It's not spirits who show Oolak. It's as Julyman says. He eats plenty. So he dreams fool things that don't mean a thing. Oolak doesn't need to believe the spirits are busy around him when he sleeps."
He laughed in the face of the unsmiling Oolak. But his laugh was cut short by the Indian's stolid response.
"Boss white man know all things plenty," he said, with the patient calm of a mind made up. "He big man. Oh, yes. Him bigger as all Indian man. Sure. But he not know the voice of the spirits that speak much with Indian man. Oolak know him. So. An' the father of Oolak. Oh, yes. So we find this fire sometime. We find him. This fire of the world. The spirits tell Oolak, so him not afraid nothing."
Julyman set a pannikin down with a clatter. He raised a brown hand pointing. He was pointing at Oolak, and his eyes were wide with inspiration.
"He dream of Unaga—him fire of Unaga! So!"