222 THE BIG CANOE

necessary to purchase both of its young owners in
order to obtain it. The commands of Thaimshim
were sacred and no one among all the tribes would
have dared to take the doll without permission from
its rightful owners.

“Go back to your village,” the princess com-
manded, in parting, “and say nothing about our
meeting. To-morrow, without a doubt, my father will
send for you and your brother, for he will be anxious
to see with his own eyes a doll that once belonged
to Thaimshim the Wonder-worker.”

That night Oala and Kona lay side by side upon
the cold floor of the Niska chief’s lodge and talked
in whispers of the good luck that had befallen them.
They shivered as the fire burned low and the cold
wind blew down upon them from the smoke hole
above, but they did not complain. Forgotten were
the discomforts and hardships of that long unhappy
year among the Niskas; forgotten were the hunger
and misery and heartache. Too excited to sleep, they
lay awake until dawn, thinking of the islands of the
Haidas and the happiness in store for them there.

Early in the morning, as the princess had prom-
ised, a messenger arrived from the Haida encamp-
ment and asked that the twin slaves be brought to
the great chief whose message he bore. Shortly after-
ward, accompanied by a relative of the Niska chief
who was himself too busy to leave the village, the
brother and sister were on their way down the bay