Where the Sun Swings North

e Village. It was well past nine o'clock and the twilight had merged into the soft, lum

tems of the Thunder-bird and the Bear stood out high against the sky. Before the Potlatch-house an Indian dog, small, coyote-like, yelped shrilly as he tugge

vertically. The gable ends faced the bay and all across the triangular space above the eves was painted the startling conventionalized head of a wolf. The ears rose weirdly from the gable edge of the roof. Two monster eyes glared through the

tch-cup by the wicked Old-Woman-Who-Would-Not-Die; tales of the long-ago heathen times when the Potlatch-house was erected and dedicated with human sacrifices; when for each of those carved corner-posts a slave had been murdered and placed at t

was stimulated by the white man's fire-water. And tonight there could be none of that. In

closely on the heels of Shane Boreland and followed

great room squatted natives in their Potlatch finery. At the farther end sat the drummers beating in booming rhythm on war-drums

the White Chief of Katleean. As they ascended the step he rose ceremoniously to greet the

quicker staccato rhythm. There was a craning of necks toward the doorwa

best advantage he sang a halting Thlinget song and scattered the down of eagles

the White Chief leaning toward her,

uffled softness. The dancing sticks beat the floor in a low, sensuous syncopation that stirred the blood. The long-fringed bl

steady pulsing of the drums banished that something faintly like foreboding with which the civilized woman looks for t

had withdrawn her hand from that of Shane and was a

lumbered a huge brown bear so true to life in form and gait that both she an

Heart-of-a-Grizzly, dr

oward the center of the floor he paused. Striking a pose he made a motion as if jumping into a river to catch a salmon. With a floundering of his ungainly body he brought the fish up on the bank of the stream

he dances, the White Chief told Ellen, were taken from the movements of the wild things of the North-the slinking of th

in a circle the fantastic figures leaped with savage abandon. When the tired couples sought the resting places against the walls ag

aused even Ellen's feet to beat time to the primitive music. She glanced at her sister. Jean's eyes

her sister's ear. "I feel the stir of the blood of our remote ancestors, who mu

with earnestness as he talked to her, and he was playing with the dozen gold and silver bracelets which adorned the gay one's shapely arms. Suddenly, with a laugh, Senott rose from the floor and

with interest, "I'd like to shake a leg myself

miling. "Take Jean, dea

d down and joined the bizarre throng. The smiling natives paused a moment to watch as

hts burned dimmer. Kayak Bill sitting between Ellen and Paul Kilbuck, attem

nd as they passed her, laughing over an intricate step they told her was the "Bear Paw." Kayak Bill and the White Chief seemed buried in

naked moon that hung above the hills across the bay. The shimmering path from its glow threw into silhouette the prows of the big canoe

a distant ridge came the faint call of a wolf, presaging, though she did not know it, an early winter. She became aware of t

that had come to her, for it is only the seasoned traveler in the little known places of the world who ceases to marvel at the adaptability of man to new and strange environment. Alaska, especially, Ell

er. She turned swiftly. Her dreamy, contemplative mood changed to one closely akin to panic, as

at urged her to run as fast as she could from the man. Mentally upbraiding herself for her foolishness she forced a smile of gr

autiful night,

turned on her and she was not unaware of a certain savage, picturesque appeal in him. She felt again a strange, undesired impulse

d, his tones low, almost caressing, "I alway

magnetic, nou

Winds! Night of t

ht. Mad, naked sum

e memory of such nights that bring me back to this country year after year, and th

ongruity of his quoting she gazed with a new curiosity at this

with a loved woman. . . ." his sweeping gesture indicating the moonli

n them she felt his presence as a tangible thing. She stirred

omething tenderly personal in the omitted word. "Sometimes . . . I wonder . . . if I might not be a better m

omen in the States, but never before had Nature provided such a setting for his posing. Doubtless it had always made a favorable appeal, for Ellen knew that man,

e her to get away to the Potlatch-house without his becoming aware of her perturbation. Fumbling uneasily with the handkerchief in her hand she dropped it. As she stooped to pick it up an exclamation escaped her. Sh

hing across her shoulders to release

sed by their efforts with the tangle, her hair shook down and tumbled in a lustrous mass

his hand grasping a l

f a white woman's hair he is protected from any kind of violence-no matter what he may have done to deserve pu

t he had severed the lock from the shining mass. Ellen started back, snatching up her hair to wind it into its acc

the girl sped toward them down the pathwa

d disapproval succeeding each other in her eyes. She made

. Let's go b

f native women was long and thick, but coarse, and even after long residence in the trader's quarters seemed to hold the faint salmon tang of the smoke-house. But this. . . . His lip lifted in his wolfish smile. It would be difficult, very difficult indeed for a wife to explain his possession of such a

d crossed to the corner beneath the high shelf of books. He drew aside a large hair-seal wall-pock

s carefully he drew out a small moose-hide poke and putting the candle on a nearby table, sat down before it. He

me, leaped and danced. In the crude light and shade his barbaric gorgeousness became d

w and gleaming it fell in a golden stream-perhaps two ounces of gold dust. With a satisfied n

ght that shone palely from Silvertip's window. As he entered the cabin the Swede, still nursing the b

unctory words, then f

ertip protested; he wh

oreland and beach sand

asion Silvertip consent

outl

d and the pale-eyed Swede reached for

e about him, his eye caught a movement amon

down and grasping Silvertip's arm. "Why didn't

rlan. He coom in har dis noon time drunk like hal, wit t'ree bottle of hootc

tted hair clung to the damp forehead and there was a sickening odor of vile liquor in the air. A long moment the trader

m if he drank three bott

sted his headdress and humming a dance-hall ballad,