Page:The white czar; a story of a polar bear (IA whiteczarstoryof00hawk).pdf/71

 sleeping bags and were soon asleep notwithstanding the fact that their companion was absent. They had no means of knowing what had befallen him. He might even be dead.

But the Eskimos are fatalists. If they had been questioned about their seeming indifference they would have replied, "If he is dead, he is dead. We cannot help it. If God wants him to die, we can't stop it."

But very promptly with the first faint indication of the return of the arctic day, Tunkine set off on the back track to find their companion, while Tukshu remained to guard the three komatiks and the dog teams.

Tunkine had no difficulty in finding the tracks where Eiseeyou had started towards the coast on his explorations.

The wind had blown but slightly the night before, but even so the tracks were blown in in places and he had to follow partly by instinct, picking up the trail for a few hundred feet and then losing it. At last, after about three hours, he came to the precipitate mountain that Eiseeyou had climbed the day before. Here the trail was very