The man with the yellow eyes drove hard with his paddle and the nose of the vessel thrust deep into the mud of the landing. For a moment he remained kneeling, supported against the strut where he had laboured. He made no attempt to leave his post. Only he gazed along down the river bank at the screen of bush which lined it. There was no emotion visible in his mask-like face. There was nothing in his eyes to tell of the swift, urgent thought behind them.
After awhile his gaze was withdrawn to the grim freight of his vessel. Then he stood up quickly and moved forward. Four bodies were lying huddled in the bottom of the canoe. With three of them he was completely unconcerned. But with the fourth it was different. He stood for a moment gazing down unemotionally at the dead body of the youthful Sate. Then he stooped, and, gathering it in his powerful arms, carried it quickly ashore. He laid it gently down on a vivid bed of Arctic wild flowers and stood over it in silent contemplation.
His pre-occupation was intense. But he gave no sign. Such emotions as were his were his alone. They were stirring in a heart deep hidden. And his tawny eyes masked no less surely now than was always their habit.
A sound disturbed him at last, and he turned like a panther ready for anything it might portend. But the flash of alertness died out of his eyes at the sight of a woman’s small figure as it broke its way through the bush in the direction of the house which was his home.
The pretty face the man was looking into was drawn and haggard. The slanting eyes were full of a terror that even the long awaited return of her man could not banish. The woman had run to him with little, hurried strides and hands outstretched in piteous appeal.
“Hela!” she cried. And into the pronunciation of the man’s name, and in the pitch of her voice she contrived to fling a world of woman’s terrified despair.
For once the man’s eyes revealed something of that which was passing behind them.
“Tell me, Crysa,” he demanded urgently. “Tell me quick.”
The distraught woman stood clinging to the arm which made no effort to yield her support. She broke at once into hysterical speech in a foreign tongue.