Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/115

 'For,' he explained, 'if Olfen's Innuit flock has returned he'll never leave them, and we've had our little jaunt for nothing.'

"But Tib, slapping his fox -skin gloves briskly together, refused to entertain this unwholesome suggestion, and intimated that inasmuch as our boss had spent enough money on the trip to buy carpet slippers for every barefooted owl in the country, we must take back something, if only an iceberg.

"The desire to trade kept the natives about the sealer, and we three, Tib, the captain, and I, slid in to shore alone. Then the captain hurried us inland several hundred yards to a low, stone house banked high with dirt and plugged with moss, and called on the missionary to appear and welcome us. But the door remained closed. 'Father Olfen!' he cried again.

"And then—great Scott, sir! but my heart certainly skipped seven throbs; for from around the corner of the hut paraded seven of the biggest polars I ever saw. And the whole outfit reared with one accord and eyed us complacently. At our apparent concern the captain laughed and assured us they were tame as kittens. Then he boldly advanced and said, 'Hello, Minnie!' and stuck out his fist. And hang me, sir, if Minnie didn't return the chaste salute most amiably! "Tib, you know, always had a hypnotic way with