Adventure Magazine Cover — page 104: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

94 of spectrum possibilities; they wheeled, they faded out, only to reappear elsewhere. A god of the snows turned in his hands a prismatic iceberg held beneath the glare of some unknown polar light. The mystery of the northern wastes, at whose explanation scientist and schoolboy may guess alike, made twilight of the night. “Beautiful!” I exclaimed, after futile search for a better word. ‘More beautiful than a rainbow—and as useless in’ this practical-minded world.” “Your simile is no good,” contended Harmon, searching his pockets for a cigaret. “A rainbow’s an inspiration of hope for every discouraged struggler and anything as helpful as that can not rightly be declared useless.” / His tobacco-hunt was unsuccessful. “And as for saying that Aurora Borealis is useless,” he went on, in further refuta- tion, “old Atoonyak, if you ever meet him up here, would avenge such blasphemy with his queer-looking Eskimo knife. Bar- ring the knife, ’d put in with him. And you would, too, if you’d been with us last ear.” : I sat on a deck-chest and enticed him with a well-filled cigaret-case. Ls operator on the United States Coast- > Guard Cutter Reindeer,’ Harmon began, “‘and all the fighting we ever saw was an occasional spiritless brush with fish- trap pirates in Alaskan waters. At the time the armistice was signed we were southbound for the Winter, making our way through Icy Strait. “It was a night like this when I picked out of the air the message that was electri- _ fying the world. A night with intermittent bursts of static discharge in the atmos- phere—the sound of far-away thunder- storms, you know—that would be audible to us only if picked up by wireless ap- paratus. “For us the word of peace occasioned but little demonstrativeness. Coastguards- men are rather undemonstrative anyway, and the boys had long ago given up hope of seeing any real action during the war, so the cessation of hostilities merely rubbed in the fact that they had been noncom- batants. “In fact," I was all but drowsing over my wireless instruments an hour later, when I “DURING the war I was wireless Adventure heard some one fumbling at the door. Thinking it was one of the officers, I hastened to open it. Outside stood a weazened little Eskimo, clad in fur parka and mukluks, or skin boots. Maybe he was a hundred years old; he was toothless enough to be at any rate. It was Atoonyak. “A month before he had paddled out to the ship at Point Barrow, announcing through a somewhat awed native inter- preter, whom he brought with him, that he had been commissioned by his people, a nomadic tribe living somewhere in the white wilderness farther north, to visit the land of the white man. He was Atoonyak, a priest, he told us, and his mission was important. To pay his way he offered us curiously carved walrus-tusks and, what was unusual for an Eskimo, a small quantity of glacial gold. | “Just why Captain Millete let him re- main aboard we couldn’t figure out. Cer- tainly the skipper overstepped the regula- tions. A coastguard cutter seldom carries passengers except by permission of official Washington. Yet Atoonyak insisted and when we finally pointed our nose south- ward toward Seattle, he and his man Friday were bedding down regularly on a couple of old mattresses, and drawing their rations ‘with the rest of us. “And now Atoonyak stood there jabber- ing in the strange tongue of his tribe, a succession of gutturals, interspersed with hissing aspirates. Occasionally, he cocked his head to one side in an inquiring, bird- like manner and said— eaeece?* “Apparently he was attempting English. ““*Police?’ I hazarded.and then, ‘please?’ “That puzzled him for a second, but seemingly it wasn’t right. He dragged his interpreter out of the darkness. ** “Him ask you if peace come,’ announced the native after the priest had hissed and clucked at him. “Atoonyak nodded vigorously and grinned. “ “Tell him yes,’ I directed. ‘Heap big peace come over all the world.’ . “The native did so, and Atoonyak spun on his heel until he faced north. He sank upon one knee and stretched his arms heavenward. And then I saw what I had not noticed before; the northern sky was luminous with the first glow that presages the mad dance of the aurora. (e@) IOOK (E@) 5}