"Ho! ho! ho!" So suddenly and so fiercely did Ounenk laugh that every voice hushed. "Never was there such a fight! So I say, I, Ounenk, fighter beforetime of beasts and men. And ere I forget, let me speak fat words and wise. By fighting will the Sunlanders teach us Mandell Folk how to fight. And if we fight long enough, we shall be great fighters, even as the Sunlanders, or else we shall be--dead. Ho! ho! ho! It was a fight!" "Where be thy brothers?" Tyee shook him till he shrieked from the pain of his hurts. Ounenk sobered. "My brothers? They are not." "And Pome-Lee?" cried one of the two Hungry Folk; "Pome-Lee, the son of my mother?" "Pome-Lee is not," Ounenk answered in a monotonous voice. "And the Sunlanders?" from Aab-Waak. "The Sunlanders are not." "Then the ship of the Sunlanders, and the wealth and guns and things?" Tyee demanded. "Neither the ship of the Sunlanders, nor the wealth and guns and things," was the unvarying response. "All are not. Nothing is. I only am." "And thou art a fool." "It may be so," Ounenk answered, unruffled. "I have seen that which would well make me a fool." Tyee held his tongue, and all waited till it should please Ounenk to tell the story in his own way. "We took no guns, O Tyee," he at last began; "no guns, my brothers--only knives and hunting bows and spears. And in twos and threes, in our kayaks, we came to the ship. They were glad to see us, the Sunlanders, and we spread our skins and they brought out their articles of trade, and everything was well. And Pome-Lee waited--waited till the sun was well overhead and they sat at meat, when he gave the cry and we fell upon them. Never was there such a fight, and never such fighters. Half did we kill in the quickness of surprise, but the half that was left became as devils, and they multiplied themselves, and everywhere they fought like devils. Three put their backs against the mast of the ship, and we ringed them with our dead before they died. And some got guns and shot with both eyes wide open, and very quick and sure. And one got a big gun, from which at one time he shot many small bullets. And so, behold!" Ounenk pointed to his ear, neatly pierced by a buckshot. "But I, Ounenk, drove my spear through his back from behind. And in such fashion, one way and another, did we kill them all--all save the head man. And him we were about, many of us, and he was alone, when he made a great cry and broke through us, five or six dragging upon him, and ran down inside the ship. And then, when the wealth of the ship was ours, and only the head man down below whom we would kill presently, why then there was a sound as of all the guns in the world--a mighty sound! And like a bird I rose up in the air, and the living Mandell Folk, and the dead Sunlanders, the little kayaks, the big ship, the guns, the wealth--everything rose up in the air. So I say, I, Ounenk, who tell the tale, am the only one left."