“I see you have.”
“Oh, mother! Take that back. I don’t show it—I mustn’t show it!” Kak looked very stern. Guninana eyed him curiously. “I’m dying to tell you,” he explained, “but it is Omialik’s secret.”
“Then keep it, son. Prove you can be trusted.”
“All very well talking so ordinary—but you don’t know what a buster of a secret this is!” the boy replied.
It was a buster. When Omialik called a family council and put the thing before them Guninana screamed:
“Indians! Have Indians here in camp—in our tents! No. No indeed! Don’t you think I value my children’s lives? Noashak, where are you? Keep close to the village to-day, child, there is danger in the woods. Kak——”
“You needn’t fuss about me,” her son answered. “I know that danger. I know where it is—the exact spot. I’ve seen the danger. I had breakfast with it this morning!” This was altogether too fine a chance, Kak could not resist bragging. “Fact is,” he continued swaggering with his hands on his hips, “it’s not nearly so dangerous a danger as you all think.”
Guninana threw up her hands.
“You tell me Indians aren’t dangerous! That you have eaten with Indians! Taptuna, the boy is crazy. We will consult the shaman—he must have been in the sun.”
But Taptuna took his son’s magnificence quite calmly. “No, he is only a little excited—elated. Breakfasting with danger would make any boy over-proud.... So many strange things are happening now it is even possible Indians might come among us for other reasons than to kill.... Are they your friends?” he asked abruptly, turning to Omialik.