“Omialik! Omialik!” gasped the breathless youngster.
But he was doomed to disappointment. It was not Omialik himself, only his Eskimos.
“Where are the others? Have you any food?” they asked in one voice.
“Not a bite,” Kak panted. “The rest are behind. I haven’t eaten since sleeping!”
“We’re pretty nearly starved ourselves but we can do better than that for you. Come along, Kid!” Linking arms they escorted their visitor to the tent, where they put before him a large bowl of cloudberries. These are something like raspberries and they grow in Victorialand, but strange to say, Kak had never eaten any, had never thought of tasting them.
“Are they good?” he asked suspiciously.
“Fine! Eat all you want,” cried both men, and scooping up fingerfuls stuffed them into their mouths. Kak was far too hungry for further question; he ate the berries and enjoyed them. It was the same with Noashak when she came; but Guninana refused to touch such food. To her it seemed like eating grass out in a field. She had been walking over those berries all her life and had never heard of anybody eating them, and why should she begin now?
The Kabluna’s Eskimos explained they had just arrived after a difficult and luckless journey; and their master was hunting while they made camp. They went one in either direction along the shore calling to guide Taptuna and Okak. Presently Okak turned up with some squirrels, and Taptuna with birds; and last of all came Omialik carrying a backload of caribou meat. Then there was a great feast and much rejoicing, and they sat up all night telling their experiences. Of course it did not seem like sitting up all night because the sun was shining the whole time and it continued broad day; but Omialik, who carried a watch and never forgot to wind it, said they had been up all night; and as it was nearly noon they had better go to bed and get some sleep.
All being strangers in that locality no one knew exactly where to find the ford. Rumor said it ran from island to island, a ridge of high bottom on which they might cross about waist-deep. After breakfast, a substantial meal eaten at nine o’clock in the evening, the Kabluna decided to look for it himself, while his men brought the rest of the caribou from the woods, and Okak and Taptuna hunted. Kak gained permission to help at the ford. It was about the hottest hour in the ceaseless Arctic day, and the two started out in fine spirits, thinking it would be no end of a lark wading in the cool lake while their friends fought flies and sweated on the chase.
With a loud laugh at their cleverness, Kak splashed into the water. “Whoop! Huroo! This is the life!”