He turned his back to the blast, and realized that it
came from the north-east. The cold was piercing and awful. The
elements which had been held in subjection for so long were unleashed
and were venting themselves with all the untamed fury of the North
upon the world.
As he turned to reenter the igloo an apparition brushed past him
rushing off into the night.
"Who is it?" he shouted.
But the wind brought back no answer and overcome with a feeling of
trepidation and a sense of impending tragedy, half believing that he
had seen a ghost, he crawled back to his cover and warm sleeping bag
to wonder.
There was no cessation in the storm or change in the conditions the
next day. In the morning while they were drinking their hot tea Bob
told Akonuk and Matuk of the apparition he had seen in the night.
"That," they said in awe, "was the spirit of Torngak," and Bob was
duly impressed.
Upon a visit later to the other igloos he missed Chealuk. She had
always sat in one corner plying her needle, and had always had a word
for him when he came in to pay a visit. Her absence was therefore
noticeable and Bob asked one of the Eskimos where she was.
"Gone," said the Eskimo.
And this was all he could learn from them. Poor old Chealuk had been
sent away, and it must have been she, then, that he had seen in the
darkness.
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