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A bunch of Mandells, led by one of the Hungry Folk, made a futile rush which melted away into the earth before the scorching fire.

Tyee caught his breath and murmured, “Like the young frost in the morning sun.”

“As I say, they are great fighters,” the old hunter whispered weakly, far gone in hemorrhage. “I know. I have heard. They be sea-robbers and hunters of seals; and they shoot quick and true, for it is their way of life and the work of their hands.”

“Like the young frost in the morning sun,” Tyee repeated, crouching for shelter behind the dying man and peering at intervals about him.

It was no longer a fight, for no Mandell man dared venture forward, and as it was, they were too close to the Sunlanders to go back. Three tried it, scattering and scurrying like rabbits; but one came down with a broken leg, another was shot through the body, and the third, twisting and dodging, fell on the edge of the village. So the tribesmen crouched in the hollow places and burrowed into the dirt in the open, while the Sunlanders’ bullets searched the plain.

“Move not,” Tyee pleaded, as Aab-Waak came worming over the ground to him. “Move not, good Aab-Waak, else you bring death upon us.”

“Death sits upon many,” Aab-Waak laughed; “wherefore, as you say, there will be much wealth in division. My father breathes fast and short behind the big rock yon, and beyond, twisted like in a knot, lieth my brother. But their share shall be my share, and it is well.”

“As you say, good Aab-Waak, and as I have said; but before division must come that which we may divide, and the Sunlanders be not yet dead.”

A bullet glanced from a rock before them, and singing shrilly, rose low over their heads on its second flight. Tyee ducked and shivered, but Aab-Waak grinned and sought vainly to follow it with his eyes.

“So swiftly they go, one may not see them,” he observed.

“But many be dead of us,” Tyee went on.

“And many be left,” was the reply. “And they hug close to the earth, for they have become wise in the fashion of righting. Further, they are angered. Moreover, when we have killed the Sunlanders on the ship, there will remain but four on the land. These may take long to kill, but in the end it will happen.”

“How may we go down to the ship when we cannot go this way or that?” Tyee questioned.

“It is a bad place where lie Bill-Man and his brothers,” Aab-Waak explained. “We may come upon them from every side, which is not good. So they aim to get their backs against the cliff and wait until their brothers of the ship come to give them aid.”

“Never shall they come from the ship, their brothers! I have said it.”

Tyee was gathering courage again, and when the Sunlanders verified the prediction by retreating to the cliff, he was light-hearted as ever.

“There be only three of us!” complained one of the Hungry Folk as they came together for council.

“Therefore, instead of two, shall you have four guns each,” was Tyee’s rejoinder.

“We did good fighting.”

“Ay; and if it should happen that two of you be left, then will you have six guns each. Therefore, fight well.”

“And if there be none of them left?” Aab-Waak whispered slyly.

“Then will we have the guns, you and I,” Tyee whispered back.

However, to propitiate the Hungry Folk, he made one of them leader of the ship expedition. This party comprised fully two-thirds of the tribesmen, and departed for the coast, a dozen miles away, laden with skins and things to trade. The remaining men were disposed in a large half-circle about the breastwork which Bill-Man and his Sunlanders had begun to throw up. Tyee was quick to note the virtues of things, and at once set his men to digging shallow trenches.

“The time will go before they are aware,” he explained to Aab-Waak; “and their minds being busy, they will not think overmuch of the dead that are, nor gather trouble to themselves. And in the dark of night they may creep closer, so that when the Sunlanders look forth in the morning light they will find us very near.”