"No, indeed! A dislocation is not serious if promptly attended to. You explain to him that I am a sort of a doctor, and can make the child well in a few seconds if he will let me. Then I want him to hold her while I pull the joint into place."
So Bonny explained that his friend was a hyas doctin or great medicine-man who could make Nittitan well hyak (quick), and the anxious father, having implicit faith in the white man's skill, consented to allow Alaric to make the attempt.
The little one uttered a sharp cry of pain as, with a quick wrench, the dislocated bone was snapped into place, and Alaric, with flushed face, but very proud of what he had done, regained his feet.
"Now," he said, "let them bathe the ankle in water as hot as the child can bear, and by to-morrow, she'll be all right. And, Bonny, if you know how to ask for anything to eat, for goodness' sake take pity on the starving poor, and say it quick."
CHAPTER XVIII.
LIFE IN SKOOKUM JOHN'S CAMP.
Skookum John, which in Chinook means "Strong John," was a Makah, or Neah Bay, Indian, whose home was at Cape Flattery on the shore of the Pacific, and at the southern side of the entrance to the superb strait of Juan de Fuca. He was a Tyhee, or chief, among his people, for he was not only their biggest man, being a trifle over six feet tall, while very few of his tribe exceeded five feet nine inches in height, but he was the boldest and most successful hunter of whales among them. This alone would have given him high rank in the tribe, for to them the whales that frequent the warm waters of that coast are what buffalo were to the Indians of the great plains.
The Makahs are fish-eaters, and while they catch and dry or smoke quantities of salmon, halibut, and cod, they esteem the whale more than all others, because there is so much of him, because he is so good to eat, and because he furnishes them with the oil which they use on all their food, as we use butter, and which they trade for nearly every other necessity of their simple life.
The big Siwash, being an expert whaleman, had much oil to trade, and made frequent visits to Victoria for this purpose. Here, being an intelligent man and keenly noting all that he saw, he learned much concerning the whites and their ways, besides picking up a fair knowledge of their language.
So it happened that when the smugglers who proposed to operate in the upper sound began to cast about for some trustworthy person, who would also be free from suspicion, to look out for their interests in that section, and keep them posted as to the whereabouts of cutters, they very wisely selected Skookum John, and offered him inducements that he could not afford to refuse. He, of course, knew nothing of the laws they proposed to violate, nor did he care, for political economy had never been included in Skookum John's studies.