But there was business at hand.  The black spot had developed into a reindeer, driven by a man.  How many were following this man Johnny could not tell.

CHAPTER IV

A NARROW ESCAPE

As Johnny stood awaiting the arrival of the stranger, many wild misgivings raced through his mind.  What if this man was but the forerunner of the whole Chukche tribe?  Then indeed, for himself and the Japanese girl things were at an end.

The newcomer was armed with a rifle.  Johnny would stand little show with him in a duel, good as his automatic was.

But the man came on with a jaunty swing that somehow was reassuring.  Who could he be?  As he came close, he dropped his rifle on his sled and approached with empty hands.

“I am Iyok-ok,” he said in good English, at the same time thrusting out his hand.  “I was an American soldier, an Eskimo.  Now I am going back to my home at Cape Prince of Wales.”

“You got your discharge easily,” smiled Johnny.

“Not so easy, but I got it.”

“Well, anyway, stranger,” said Johnny gripping the other’s hand, “I can give you welcome, comrade.  We are traveling the same way.”

The Eskimo looked at Johnny’s regulation army shoes as he said the word comrade, but made no comment.

“Know anything about travel in such a country?” asked Johnny.

“Most things you need to know.”

“Then you sure are welcome,” Johnny declared.  Then, as he looked at the Eskimo closely there came to him a feeling that they had met before but where and when he could not recall.  He did not mention the fact, but merely motioned the stranger to a seat on the sled while he dug into his pack for a morsel of good cheer.

Many days later, Johnny lay sprawled upon a double thickness of long haired deer skins.  He was reading a book.  Two seal oil lamps sputtered in the igloo, but these were for heat, not for light.  Johnny got his light in the form of a raggedly round patch of sunlight which fell straight down from the top where the poles of the igloo met.

Johnny was very comfortable physically, but not entirely at ease mentally.  He had been puzzled by something that had happened five minutes before.  Moreover, he was half angry at his enforced idleness here.

Yet he was very comfortable.  The igloo was a permanent one.  Erected at the base of a cliff, covered over with walrus skin, lined with deer skin, and floored with planks hewn from driftwood logs, it was perfect for a dwelling of its kind.  It stood in a hunting village on the Siberian shore of Behring Sea.  The Jap girl, Johnny and Iyok-ok had traveled thus far in safety.

Yes, they had come a long distance, many hundreds of miles.  As Johnny thought of it now, he put his book aside (a dry, old novel, left here by some American seaman) and dreamed those days all through again.