The Curse of the Viking Grave by Farley Mowat Page B

credit to a boiler factory. Not only that, but several of the Eskimos were almost as athletic when asleep as when awake. Feet in his ribs, elbows in his ear, and once a large hand over his mouth kept Jamie from being bored. Angeline fared a little better for the women were quieter sleepers, but even she looked weary and hollow-eyed when morning finally freed them from the communal bed.
    Once again they were treated to the sight of a camp being broken, since the Kakut Lake families had decided to join the rest in the trek to the Kazon River.
    â€œWe gather people like a snowball rolling downhill,” was Jamie’s comment to Awasin and Angeline.
    Angeline looked very thoughtful. “That is so, Jamie. I wonder how many will there be in bed tonight?”
    â€œI hate to think!” said Jamie, shuddering.
    But they were lucky. The next camp was at the north end of Kakut Lake, and when they reached it they found it had been broken up the day before and its people had gone on. Consequently, everyone slept out that night, and even Peetyuk seemed grateful for fresh air and space, and for the privacy of his own robes.
    Just before noon the following morning the straggling line of sleds and people crossed the strip of land beyond Kakut Lake and reached the high cutbanks of Innuit Ku. To Jamie and Awasin the moment was one of some solemnity, for this was their return to the big river which the previous year had carried them north to the great adventure of their lives.
    Innuit Ku was not as they had seen it last. It was ice-covered now, but the thaw waters had broken the ice loose from shore and had risen under it until the huge cakes were cracking and splitting and almost pushing over the edge of the banks. From beneath this uneasy layer of ice came a deep-throated roar of barely contained waters.
    â€œThat ice will go out anytime,” Awasin said in awe. “I do not want to be on it when it goes!”
    But there was no question of traveling on the river, and Kakut led his procession north along the eastern bank. About noon he called a halt and everyone scattered to gather fuel for a tea fire.
    Jamie and Awasin went inland to collect willows, leaving Angeline and Peetyuk to get out the grub. Suddenly they felt the frozen ground tremble under their feet. At the same instant there came a dull, reverberating roar, and even as they looked at each other with startled eyes it rose to a tremendous clashing thunder.
    â€œThe river!” Awasin yelled, and the two boys turned and ran toward the travel camp.
    They arrived in time to watch a fearsome spectacle. The flood waters building up along hundreds of miles of lakes and rivers were throwing off their chains. The whole surface of the river was in agony. Gigantic cakes of ice lifted, twisted, slipped and crashed as they began to tear apart and move shudderingly downstream. Then, from upstream, a wall of ice and water fifteen or twenty feet high appeared and came roaring down toward the watchers.
    Clutching Angeline against him, Awasin watched wide-eyed as the mighty battering-ram of ice and water sweptdown toward them. Jamie’s lips moved as he shouted something, but nothing could be heard above the cataclysmic crash of ice and rocks and water. The flood wave came abreast of them and they saw blocks of ice ten feet in thickness flung high into the air to fall in great gouts of spray and shattered ice. Ice crystals glittered and shimmered above the unleashed power of the raging river like a jeweled fog.
    No one moved during the half hour that it took for the flood to subside a little. When at last Kakut called on them to make their fires and to eat their meal, even the Eskimos went about their business in a subdued silence.
    â€œWinter dead,” Peetyuk said as the four sat drinking their tea. “Now good time for Eskimo people begin. Look. Tingmea come now!” He pointed to the sky where a long, ragged “V” of geese was following the course of the