The Purple Flame

lunder into the brown one that followed him, and this one was in turn thrown against a white one that followed the two. This set all three of them into

desire to turn and flee. Yet she held her ground. Had she seen a flash of purple flame? She had

f. "Perhaps my eyes are seeing things. T'wou

mornings before from her reindeer herd, close to a hundred miles from No

the Arctic's autumn time-had stretched his long neck to stare at her. Here a mother white fox had yap-yaped at her, insolently and unafraid. Here she had paused to pick a handful of pink salmon berries or to admire a particularly brilliant array of wild flo

on a sand bar of the Sinrock River. At least she had thought the scow deserted. Until now she h

Yes! Yes! There can be no

ust "mush" on through the dark, over the soft, oozing tundra, for fifteen more weary miles. Fifteen miles further dow

she was made of such stern stuff as the Arctic wi

h she now saw shoot straight out, a full two feet, to instantly disappear. She had seen nothing like it before in the Arctic. As she studied t

o take chances with them. I must go o

ps. One at a time they started forward until at last th

back. Again she caught th

sed to look longer. As it was, she gave herself over to wondering what sort of people would tak

rits of dead animals. For one of these, the "Bladder Festival," they saved all the bladders of polar bears, walrus and

It was the brilliant flame of a blue-hot furnace flaring up, or something like that. Probably wasn't Eskimo at all.

sed the Pacific to take up their homes in the far

meless tribes," she whispered to herself, as if half afr

ed short. Just before her a form loomed out o

id, scarcely breathing. Then she

n, "I might excuse myself for that. I'm tired out with marching over this soggy tundra. Besides, I guess that

told of more not far away, a whole herd of them. Where there were reindeer there would be

inrock herd,"

ent wall. Fifteen minutes later she was seated upon a rolled-up sleeping bag, chatting gayly with two black-eye

ad dined on hardtack and juicy reindeer chops. Then she crawled deep down into her soft re

her and the purpose of her fatiguing journey. She had come all this way to meet a

ndure our cold, snow, and blizzards. She's probably slim, willowy, and tender as a baby; dresses in thin silks, and all that. Why did father send her

she had lived all but one year of her life in the far north, she had never, until two months be

ment for a debt, was the only wealth he had saved from the crash. Following this, his doctor had ordered him to leave the rigorous climate of the North and to seek renewed health in

arket. Trouble is, it's too hard to dispose of the meat. And if you can't sell reinde

thinking that a year in the northern wilds would do her good, had asked permission to send

y for you," her f

ain. "Oh, well, no use to be a pessimist,"

tsy. Patsy was two years younger than Marian. There could be no missing the fact that she was much slimme

les, there could scarcely have been a greater number on one person's face. Her mouth, too, had lines that

red sweaters; great, broad scarfs of mixed grays; gay tams; short plaid skirts; heavy brown corduroy

's clothes. You've got a spotted fawnskin parka, I know you have. I'm going to wear that, right

own. I'm heavier than you are, but arctic clothing do

d an orange colored scarf about her n

e taken, Marian walked slowly up and down the room. She

e all shut in; when no one comes and no one goes, and the nights are twenty hours long; when the dogs howl their lonesome song-it's going to be hard for her then. But I'll do the bes

me. Again it was night. They were on their way north to the reindeer herd. Traveling over the first soft snow of winter, they had made twenty miles that day. For the last hour Patsy had not utter

f, as she brought her reindeer to a halt and stood studying

rd to go forward, there flashed across

xclaime

it?" as

urple

e flame? W

re in that old dredge. And since it's there, we

alf sobbed. "You don't know, y

e dare not stop here. The people in the old scow might have dogs a

d t

neath th

th a burst of determination

er of them forgot the purple flame. Three

sighed as she turned to give her fu