THE IRON MEN 67

triumphed over his fear of the strangers, and at last,
reassured by the silence on board, he drove his canoe
into the shadows beneath the stern and climbed
laboriously up to the deck above. He was standing
there, staring up into the moonlit rigging overhead,
when he was detected by one of the sailors on watch.

His loud cry of “Indians! Indians!” brought other —

members of the crew tumbling out upon the deck.
Weah, terror-stricken, was seized before he could
leap into the water, but he was quickly freed again
when the astounded men found only one canoe in the
shadows below and realized that the lone intruder
was but a lad.

Fortunately for Weah, there was a Hudson’s Bay
trader on board who had been picked up only a week
before at a Niska village on the mainland where he
had been living for several months. He was able to
speak haltingly in the Niska tongue which Weah
understood, having learned it from his father’s Niska
slaves.

“The boy says that his people believe the ship to
be the spirit of the pestilence,” the trader explained
to the others. “They have never before seen a sailing-
vessel or white men, and they have been too fright-
ened to leave the village. He saw us from the shore,
but he did not dare to tell his people lest the shamans
punish him for venturing too near the dreaded
pestilence. He says he heard us talk and pound and
sing, and knows we are not spirits. He is very curious