Part 23 (2/2)

”How-do.” He handed Father Wills a piece of dirty paper.

”Hah! Yes. All right. Andrew!”

Andrew needed no more. He bustled away to harness the dogs. The white men were staring up at the sky. ”What's goin' on in heaven, Father?

S'pose you call this the Aurora Borealis--hey?”

”Yes,” said the priest; ”and finer than we often get it. We are not far enough north for the great displays.”

He went in to put on his parki.

Mac, after looking out, had shut the door and stayed behind with Kaviak.

On Father Will's return Farva, speaking apparently less to the priest than to the floor, muttered: ”Better let him stop where he is till his cold's better.”

The Colonel came in.

”Leave the child here!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the priest.

”--till he's better able to travel.”

”Why not?” said the Colonel promptly.

”Well, it would be a kindness to keep him a few days. I'll _have_ to travel fast tonight.”

”Then it's settled.” Mac bundled Kaviak into the Boy's bunk.

When the others were ready to go out again, Farva caught up his fur coat and went along with them.

The dogs were not quite ready. The priest was standing a little absentmindedly, looking up. The pale green streamers were fringed with the tenderest rose colour, and from the corona uniting them at the zenith, they shot out across the heavens, with a rapid circular and lateral motion, paling one moment, flaring up again the next.

”Wonder what makes it,” said the Colonel.

”Electricity,” Mac snapped out promptly.

The priest smiled.

”One mystery for another.”

He turned to the Boy, and they went on together, preceding the others, a little, on the way down the trail towards the river.

”I think you must come and see us at Holy Cross--eh? Come soon;” and then, without waiting for an answer: ”The Indians think these flitting lights are the souls of the dead at play. But Yagorsha says that long ago a great chief lived in the North who was a mighty hunter. It was always summer up here then, and the big chief chased the big game from one end of the year to another, from mountain to mountain and from river to sea. He killed the biggest moose with a blow of his fist, and caught whales with his crooked thumb for a hook. One long day in summer he'd had a tremendous chase after a wonderful bird, and he came home without it, deadbeat and out of temper. He lay down to rest, but the sunlight never winked, and the unending glare maddened him. He rolled, and tossed, and roared, as only the Yukon roars when the ice rushes down to the sea. But he couldn't sleep. Then in an awful fury he got up, seized the day in his great hands, tore it into little bits, and tossed them high in the air. So it was dark. And winter fell on the world for the first time. During months and months, just to punish this great crime, there was no bright suns.h.i.+ne; but often in the long night, while the chief was wearying for summer to come again, he'd be tantalised by these little bits of the broken day that flickered in the sky. Coming, Andrew?” he called back.

The others trooped down-hill, dogs, sleds, and all. There was a great hand-shaking and good-byeing.

Nicholas whispered:

”You come Pymeut?”

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