“Why didn’t you get him, son? Seeing isn’t eating!”
Kak looked rather foolish. “Because,” he explained, “while I was following the hare I saw a caribou run over the ridge, and I thought he’d be grand to have, so I went for him. But he had seen me and he ran and ran, and I followed till I was afraid I might lose you all; so then I thought I’d come back after the hare—but he had skipped away.”
“Tut, tut! You ought to have stuck to the hare, lad, and made sure of him when we’re so short. A pot of boiled hare to-night would have been first rate.”
“Yes, wouldn’t it?”
“Elegant!”
Kak licked his lips and exchanged glances with his mother. Guninana’s look said: “All the same, your father is hunting caribou when he might be killing hares, he is wiser than his own words. I think you were quite right.” And that made the boy feel happy again.
They grew hungrier every day, and it grew hotter every day, and the flies seemed to bite worse and worse. Kak was so busy hunting now he could not look after Sapsuk, so the poor dog’s eyes and feet were almost as bad as Pikalu’s. Strange to say Noashak behaved better than anybody expected. She ate very little over her share, sometimes Guninana or Taptuna spared her an extra bite, but on the whole she fared like the rest and was no more cantankerous than usual. It was Noashak, too, who raised the first cry of “Woods!” Since they could see no break beyond the trees this was an alarm instead of their journey’s welcome end. The forest spreads thickly east of Dismal Lake. They must take their bearings afresh, turn and follow the straggling spruce till the first great disk of shining water lay on their left. At sight of it hope shot up like a rocket. One more night’s trek would bring them to the ford, where Omialik and his magic gun promised food!
That day they pitched their camp in a driving rain, built a big bonfire in front of the tent, and dined off part of a sleeping rug. The old caribou skin when boiled made a shockingly poor dinner but better than nothing. No one wanted to repeat it for breakfast though; they preferred to go without on the chance of finding something nicer. This was the first time they had really gone empty. The three bowmen took it stoically and separated for better hunting; while Guninana with a tearful, hungry little girl and the famished dogs, tried to make a straight course over the hills. The far shore running out between the two lobes of the lake gave them direction.
Now they had come so near Kak was all on fire to be the first to meet the Kabluna. He raced through the strip of woods, neglecting to watch for game, crashing over stones and under boughs, risking everything to reach the shore. The white man had promised to wait by the ford, and his party were sure to be there—sure! For Taptuna’s family had traveled slowly the last two weeks. Half rations do not make either men or animals feel particularly frisky, nor much like walking all day at top speed under a boiling sun.
When the ground began to drop toward the water and the trees thinned Kak redoubled his efforts. Coming out suddenly on to the narrow channel dotted with islands which joins the first and second parts of this triple lake, he saw men up the beach and near the woods a tent, gave one exultant whoop, and made for them. They in turn started, dropped their work, and ran forward.