This latter remark was a sort of inspiration. Leo had observed, while Anders was speaking, that a stout cheerful-faced woman had been pushing aside the men and gradually edging her way toward the Eskimo chief with the air of a privileged person. That he had hit the mark was obvious, for Grabantak turned with a bland smile, and hit his wife a facetious and rather heavy slap on the shoulder. She was evidently accustomed to such treatment, and did not wince.
Taking from his bundle a gorgeous smoking-cap richly ornamented with brilliant beads, Leo coolly crowned the chief with it. Grabantak drew himself up and tried to look majestic, but a certain twitching of his face, and sparkle in his eyes, betrayed a tendency to laugh with delight. Fortunately, there was another cap of exactly the same pattern in the bundle, which Leo instantly placed on the head of the wife--whose name he afterwards learned was Merkut.
The chief"s a.s.sumed dignity vanished at this. With that childlike hilarity peculiar to the Eskimo race, he laughed outright, and then, seizing the cap from Merkut"s head, put it above his own to the amus.e.m.e.nt of his grinning followers.
Leo then selected a glittering clasp-knife with two blades, which the chief seized eagerly. It was evidently a great prize--too serious a gift to be lightly laughed at. Then a comb was presented to the wife, and a string of gay beads, and a pair of scissors. Of course the uses of combs and scissors had he explained, and deep was the interest manifested during the explanation, and utter the forgetfulness of the whole party for the time being in regard to everything else in the world--Oblooria included, who sat unnoticed on the rocks with her face still buried in her hands.
When Grabantak"s possessions were so numerous that the hood of his coat, and the tops of his wife"s boots were nearly filled with them, he became generous, and, prince-like, (having more than he knew what to do with), began to distribute things to his followers.
Among these followers was a tall and stalwart son of his own, to whom he was rather stern, and not very liberal. Perhaps the chief wished to train him with Spartan ideas of self-denial. Perhaps he wanted his followers to note his impartiality. Merkut did not, however, act on the same principles, for she quietly pa.s.sed a number of valuable articles over to her dear son Koyatuk, un.o.bserved by his stern father.
Things had gone on thus pleasantly for some time; the novelty of the gifts, and the interest in their explanation having apparently rendered these people forgetful of the fact that they might take them all at once; when a sudden change in the state of affairs was wrought by the utterance of one word.
"We must not," said Leo to Anders, looking at his follower over the heads of the Eskimos, "forget poor little Oblooria."
"Oblooria!" roared Grabantak with a start, as if he had been electrified.
"Oblooria!" echoed Koyatuk, glaring round.
"Oblooria!" gasped the entire band.
Another moment and Grabantak, bursting through the crowd, leaped towards the crouching girl and raised her face. Recognising her he uttered a yell which probably was meant for a cheer.
Hurrying the frightened girl into the circle through which he had broken, the chief presented her to his son, and, with an air worthy of a civilised courtier, said:--
"Your _wife_, Koyatuk--your Oblooria!--Looria!"
He went over the last syllables several times, as if he doubted his senses, and feared it was too good news to be true.
This formal introduction was greeted by the chief"s followers with a series of wild shouts and other demonstrations of extreme joy.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
A FIGHT IN DEFENCE OF WOMAN, AND RIFLE-SHOOTING EXTRAORDINARY.
When the excitement had somewhat abated, Leo stepped to the side of Oblooria, and laying his hand on her shoulder said firmly, through Anders:--
"Pardon me, Grabantak, this girl is _not_ the wife of Koyatuk; she is my _sister_!"
The chief frowned, clenched his teeth, and grasped a spear--
"When did Kablunet men begin to have Eskimo sisters?"
"When they took all distressed women under their protection," returned Leo promptly. "Every woman who needs my help is my sister," he added with a look of self-sufficiency which he was far from feeling.
This new doctrine obviously puzzled the chief, who frowned, smiled, and looked at the ground, as if in meditation. It seemed to afford great comfort to Oblooria, who nestled closer to her champion. As for Koyatuk, he treated the matter with an air of mingled surprise and scorn, but dutifully awaited his father"s pleasure.
Koyatuk was physically a fine specimen of a savage, but his spirit was not equal to his body. Like his father he was over six feet high, and firmly knit, being of both larger and stronger build than Leo, whom he now regarded, and of course hated, as his rival--a contemptible one, no doubt; still--a rival.
The warriors watched their chief in breathless suspense. To them it was a thoroughly new and interesting situation. That a white stranger, tall and active, but slender and very young, should dare single-handed to defy not only their chief, but, as it were, the entire tribe, including the royal family, was a state of things in regard to which their previous lives afforded no parallel. They could not understand it at all, and stood, as it were, in eager, open-mouthed, and one-legged expectation.
At last Grabantak looked up, as if smitten by a new idea, and spoke--
"Can Kablunet men fight?" he asked.
"They love peace better than war," answered Leo, "but when they see cause to fight they can do so."
Turning immediately to his son, Grabantak said with a grim smile--
"Behold your wife, take her!"
Koyatuk advanced. Leo placed Oblooria behind him, and, being unarmed, threw himself into a pugilistic posture of defence. The young Eskimo laid one of his strong hands on the Englishman"s shoulder, intending to thrust him aside violently. Leo was naturally of a tender disposition.
He shrank from dealing a violent blow to one who had not the remotest idea of what was coming, or how to defend himself from the human fist when used as a battering-ram.
But Leo chanced to be, in a sense, doubly armed. During one of his holiday rambles in England he had visited Cornwall, and there had learned that celebrated "throw" which consists in making your haunch a fulcrum, your right arm a lever, and your adversary a shuttlec.o.c.k. He suddenly grasped his foe round the waist with one arm. Next moment the Grabantaks saw what the most imaginative among them had never till then conceived of--Koyatuk"s soles turned to the sky, and his head pointing to the ground! The moment following, he lay flat on his back looking upwards blankly.
The huk! hi! ho! hooroos! that followed may be conceived, but cannot be described. Some of the men burst into laughter, for anything ludicrous is irresistible to an Eskimo of the very far north. A few were petrified. Others there were who resented this indignity to the heir-apparent, and flourished their spears in a threatening manner.
These last Grabantak quieted with a look. The incident undoubtedly surprised that stern parent, but also afforded him some amus.e.m.e.nt. He said it was an insult that must be avenged. Oddly enough he made use of an expression which sounded curiously familiar to Leo"s ears, as translated by Anders. "The insult," said Grabantak, "could only be _washed out in blood_!"
Strange, that simple savages of the far north should hold to that ridiculous doctrine. We had imagined that it was confined entirely to those further south, whose minds have been more or less warped by civilised usage.
A ring was immediately formed, and poor Leo now saw that the matter was becoming serious. He was on the eve of fighting an enforced duel in Oblooria"s service.
While the savages were preparing the lists, and Koyatuk, having recovered, was engaged in converse with his father, Leo whispered to Anders--
"Perhaps Oblooria has no objection to be the wife of this man?"
But the poor girl had very strong objections. She was, moreover, so emphatic in her expressions of horror, and cast on her champion such a look of entreaty, that he would have been more than mortal had he refused her. It was very perplexing. The idea of killing, or being killed, in such a cause was very repulsive. He tried to reason with Grabantak about the sin of injuring a defenceless woman, and the abstract right of females in general to have some say in the selection of their husbands, but Grabantak was inexorable.
"Is the Kablunet afraid?" he asked, with a glance of scornful surprise.
"Does he _look_ afraid?" returned Leo, quietly.
Koyatuk now stepped into the middle of the ring of warriors, with a short spear in his right hand, and half-a-dozen spare ones in his left, whereby Leo perceived that the battle before him was not meant to be a mere "exchange of shots," for the "satisfaction of honour." There was evidently no humbug about these Eskimos.
Two men mounted guard over Anders and Oblooria, who, however, were allowed to remain inside the ring to witness the combat. A warrior now advanced to Leo and presented him with a small bundle of spears. He took them almost mechanically, thanked the giver, and laid them down at his feet without selecting one. Then he stood up, and, crossing his arms on his breast, gazed full at his opponent, who made a hideous face at him and flourished his spear.
It was quite evident that the Eskimos were perplexed by the white youth"s conduct, and knew not what to make of it. The truth is that poor Leo was almost beside himself with conflicting emotions and uncertainty as to what he ought to do. Despite all that had taken place, he found it almost impossible to persuade himself that he was actually about to engage in mortal combat. He had not a vestige of angry feeling in his heart against the man whom he was expected to fight with to the death, and the extraordinary nature of the complex faces that Koyatuk was making at him tended to foster the delusion that the whole thing was a farce--or a dream.
Then the knowledge that he could burst through the ring, get hold of his rifle, and sell his life dearly, or, perhaps, cause the whole savage tribe to fly in terror, was a sore temptation to him. All this, coupled with the necessity for taking instant and vigorous action of some sort, was enough to drive an older head distracted. It did drive the blood violently to the youth"s face, but, by a powerful effort of self-restraint, he continued to stand perfectly still, like a living statue, facing the Eskimo.
At last Koyatuk became tired of making useless faces at his rival.
Suddenly poising his spear, he launched it.
Had Leo"s eye been less quick, or his limbs less active, that spear had laid him low for ever. He had barely time to spring aside, when the weapon pa.s.sed between his side and his left arm, grazing the latter slightly, and drawing blood which trickled to the ends of his fingers.
There could be no further doubt now about the nature of the fight.