Adventure stories, American; Fiction; Short stories; Western stories
"So, when there came a ship, Old Kinoos stepped forward and said he
would show the way. He was an old man then, and his hair was white;
but he was unafraid. And he was cunning, for he took the ship to where
the sea sucks in to the land and the waves beat white on the mountain
called Romanoff. The sea sucked the ship in to where the waves beat
white, and it ground upon the rocks and broke open its sides. Then
came all the people of Pastolik, (for this was the plan), with their
war-spears, and arrows, and some few guns. But first the Russians put
out the eyes of Old Kinoos that he might never show the way again,
and then they fought, where the waves beat white, with the people of
Pastolik.
"Now the head-man of these Russians was Ivan. He it was, with his two
thumbs, who drove out the eyes of Kinoos. He it was who fought his way
through the white water, with two men left of all his men, and went
away along the rim of the Great Fog Sea into the north. Kinoos was
wise. He could see no more and was helpless as a child. So he fled away
from the sea, up the great, strange Yukon, even to Nulato, and I fled
with him.
"This was the deed my father did, Kinoos, an old man. But how did the
young man, Negore?"
Once again she silenced him.
"With my own eyes I saw, at Nulato, before the gates of the great
fort, and but few days gone. I saw the Russian, Ivan, who thrust out
my father's eyes, lay the lash of his dog-whip upon thee and beat
thee like a dog. This I saw, and knew thee for a coward. But I saw
thee not, that night, when all thy people--yea, even the boys not yet
hunters--fell upon the Russians and slew them all."
"Not Ivan," said Negore, quietly. "Even now is he on our heels, and
with him many Russians fresh up from the sea."
Oona made no effort to hide her surprise and chagrin that Ivan was not
dead, but went on:
"In the day I saw thee a coward; in the night, when all men fought,
even the boys not yet hunters, I saw thee not and knew thee doubly a
coward."
"Thou art done? All done?" Negore asked.
She nodded her head and looked at him askance, as though astonished
that he should have aught to say.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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