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Title: The Arctic legions

Author: A. De Herries Smith

Illustrator: Robert A. Graef

Release date: September 7, 2025 [eBook #76834]

Language: English

Original publication: New York, NY: The Frank A. Munsey Company, 1929

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76834

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARCTIC
LEGIONS ***

The Arctic Legions

By A. de HERRIES SMITH

Menaced on all sides by the death-dealing
hoofs of migrating caribou, Conroy of the
Mounted and Yeyik, the half-breed
killer, face a struggle for mastery.

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Argosy All-Story Weekly March 2 1929.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

The monotonous clicking of deer hoofs on the rock valleys of the Barren
Lands, and the faint fingers of light touching the granite ridges, told
Corporal Conroy that another day had come.
The Mounted Policeman's bronzed face wrinkled with pain as he shifted his
body into another position and glanced across the upthrust bowlder that
split the waves of migrating caribou.
Yeyik, the Yellowknife killer, was there, huddled down Indian fashion; he
still had Conroy's Colt lying on the flat rock before him. In the half light the
Mountie could not determine if the blurred figure opposite were asleep or
awake; whether the man had purposely laid the gun there to tantalize him,
or whether it was a case of rank carelessness on the Indian's part.
Conroy's eyes became pin points of gray light; the muscles stood out on his
neck in little pulsing ridges. With a slow flexing movement the corporal
yawned, doubled his arms, threw his shoulders back, and at the same time
reached out one long leg toward the revolver.
The Indian made no move.
Another yawn, another stretch, and the Mountie's moccasin was within
three inches of the weapon. Conroy blinked his eyes, edged along the rock
again, and reached out once more. Still the same space existed between his
tensed foot and the gun.
"Hai, hai, hai!" Yeyik's shout came all at once, ringing out over the clatter
of hoofs and the clicking of horns. "I make the joke, see? Hai! I am a hunter
—a strong hunter. I do not sleep."
With his leathery face split by a wide grin, the half-breed removed his right
knee. Then Conroy saw that the native had a moccasin tie-string attached to
the Colt's trigger guard. With the babiche cord passing under his knee, the
native had been able to pull the weapon along without detection.
"Huh-huh. You're clever—at children's games," the corporal sneered as
Yeyik rocked back and forth in silent laughter. "You're not clever enough to
save your own hide, though. A poor hunter. Tcha!"

"A strong hunter," the half-breed countered, voice savage all at once as he
jerked the gun to him.
"You lie, sikak!" Conroy retorted evenly, hard eyes still on the fingers
playing with the Colt's trigger. "A strong hunter? You are but a jest for the
old squaws squatting in the teepees.
"There are six shells in the little gun, and yet you are afraid to fire one at
me!"

"There are six shells in the gun," the Mounted Policeman said, "yet you
are afraid to fire one at me!"

The Yellowknife brought the Colt's muzzle up in line with the Mountie's
heart; then he dropped it again and recommenced fiddling with the trigger
guard.
In time he remembered Conroy's reputation for both speed and cunning.
"I am a wise hunter, and no fool," the half-breed hissed in Cree, eyelids
flickering. "Hah, one shot. What then? If I miss you, you are upon me like a
wolf, and I go to the Big Stone House from which none return. Namoya! I
live. If you desire death—behold!"
He waved a tattered arm at the deer surging by under the rock; white-eyed,
wide-nostrilled in fear of the man scent, their antlers almost touching the
travelers' moccasins.

The corporal shrugged his shoulders and slowly got to his feet, to stand
staring into the north. He could see nothing but the hard blue sky and that
moving blanket of deer covering the entire face of the Barren Lands.
Thousands of caribou pressing forward for the shelter of the Last Woods,
there to winter away from the Arctic's gales. The Mountie squatted down on
the bowlder again, face wrinkled in disgust.
Yeyik was on his feet now, padding up and down like a caged wild animal,
the tassels of his gaudily beaded warm capote fluttering in the dawn wind.
Back and forth the killer paced in soundless moccasins, one eye on the
milling deer, the other on the Mountie.
"Hoofs! Hoofs! Hoofs!" the corporal said. "Forty million caribou. They'd
trample you to death down there in two minutes."
Yeyik whirled at the corporal's words, thin lips snarling. The Colt was
jerked up to his hip.
"Quite correct," Conroy laughed, watching the other man's wind-cracked
face. "At least that is the estimate made by the Wild Life Department, and
they should know. If we've butted into the main migration, we may be here

for three weeks, waiting for them to pass—if we don't go mad in the
meantime. Pleasant, eh?"
No reply but a scornful grunt.
"Gets you, doesn't it?" the corporal essayed a moment later. "Nothing but
horns, horns, horns, and hoofs, hoofs, hoofs. Reminds me of France, Yeyik.
Slogging along in the mud, head down. Feet—feet—feet! Jupiter! I'll never
forget that."
"Namoya! Stop it," the half-breed shrilled in Cree, flourishing the Colt. The
pupils of the man's brown eyes were dilating and contracting, his thin
nostrils spread.
"Feet—feet—feet! Yes," Yeyik went on again in his native tongue, unable to
ignore the other man's words. "But think of the meat! Nothing to do but kill.
Hai! I am a strong hunter and I have filled many cooking pots with caribou
tongues."
Conroy nodded to himself, watching the native's lips working. Yes, that was
Yeyik's reputation, all right. He had been a great hunter of animals before
he took to hunting men instead. It had been told how he crouched in a stone
shelter on the lip of the Pass and wantonly slaughtered hundreds of deer;
then took only the tongues and left the remainder for the white foxes. Yeyik
was a killer, right enough—he seemed to have it in his blood.
"Great to stand here and knock 'em over, eh?" the Mountie suggested.
"Why, you could get three with each bullet. Dunno that you could, though.
Those infernal hoofs would be likely to put you off. God, there's no end to
them.
"Hoofs—hoofs—hoofs! You'll go mad before I will, though, Yeyik. Better
give me that gun, and I'll get you through somehow.
"Got to take your medicine anyhow, and if I kick out there will be plenty
more Mounted Police to take up and follow your trail, so—"
"Namoya! Enough!" the half-breed broke in on him, whirling about and
jerking up the Colt again. "Listen," he added wildly. "In the mission I learn
to count. Twenty, forty, hundred, but now—sacré! Did I have but an ax, a
little Hudson's Bay camp ax, I could stand and kill—kill—kill. Aha! No
more! Back! Back! Back!"

Conroy halted his forward slide and stepped backward in obedience to the
gun's threat, until his heels were on the edge of the rock.
"Hell of a hunter you are!" the Mountie taunted, lips scornful. "You have a
gun, you have a long knife, and yet you are afraid to kill. When this tale is
told about the teepees there will be much laughter."
Yeyik snorted, but apparently had only half heard the words. He turned
away again, his gaze on those myriads of legs crisscrossing each other in a
maddening jumble.
Silence fell on the two while the forest of antlers surged on down the valley.
Sleek brown bodies passed in unending procession, those white forefeet
forever flashing under the cold sun's glint.
The whole world seemed to be filled with clashing antlers and the never-
ending click-click-click of those dainty, death-dealing hoofs.

Watching the tide of animal life flowing past the bowlder, it suddenly came
to the Mountie that the caribou were even thicker than before and traveling
at a greater speed.
Now and then one of the deer would be forced up on its comrade's backs as
the pressure became unbearable. The fawns were bleating more, and the
sweaty odors of the herds was accompanied by a heat fog that hung in the
chilly air over the deer.
"By gosh, Yeyik, the caribou herds are—"
Cr-ack!
Conroy's words were fractured by the Colt's bark.
He whirled about just as the half-breed sent two more bullets thudding into
the packed mass of animals underneath.
The stricken deer were instantly engulfed by those pressing on from behind,
and in a moment the caribou were moving on as evenly as before.
Cr-ack! Cr-ack!

"All gone but one. But I can count, me," Yeyik shrilled, his voice almost a
screech as the Colt's muzzle swung round on the Mounted Policeman.
"Hoofs, hoofs, hoofs! I am a great hunter, but you—"
Conroy suddenly doubled down, jerked off his Stetson, and sent the hat
skimming through the air. The stiff brim caught the half-breed across the
mouth, momentarily jarring him off his balance.
Three things came together with lightning speed; the revolver's crash,
Conroy's rush, and Yeyik's plunge. The Mountie's fingers gripped the other
man's capote, and came away with a handful of fringe as Yeyik leaped out
into mid-air.
The jump put the half-breed astride one of the plunging backs below the
rock, and Conroy obtained a fleeting glimpse of Yeyik clawing at a terrified
caribou's antlers as he struggled to reach the hunting knife sheathed under
his waist scarf.
An exultant yell floated up to the man on the bowlder.
The corporal kicked the revolver back from the bowlder's edge, gathered
himself, and ran across the rock. Trail-hardened muscles shot him out into
the air, and a split-second later his fingers were again gripping Yeyik's
capote.
Under this double burden the caribou vented a bleat of terror and collapsed.
The two men rolled off the slippery back and into a mad jumble of stabbing
hoofs—a veritable forest of flickering legs.
Still gripping the half-breed, the Mountie came half to his feet, only to be
knocked over again by the rush of deer.
White hocks flowed past him in unending procession as he lay for a
moment with his head protected by one arm.
"Now! Up!"
Conroy's shout reached Yeyik's ears, although the sound was almost
drowned by the clicking hoofs. Some long-forgotten lesson in obedience,
learned at the mission school, prompted the killer to respond. Together the
men leaped to their feet.

Two wide eyes and a velvety snout suddenly filled the corporal's vision. He
crashed his fist into the caribou's nose, and was vaguely conscious of the
animal's swerve. In that moment, while the deer threshed away through its
comrades, Conroy's eyes caught the opening left by the brute's plunge. He
grabbed Yeyik by the collar, half throwing, half carrying him toward the
sheltering bowlder.
They fell in a panting huddle behind the rock; Yeyik on the gravel, Conroy
on top of him; still clutching the other's collar.
Over his shoulder the Mountie saw the white hocks flow on—twin streams,
split by the bowlder.
The two were still lying there, wordlessly, when five minutes later a furry
shape trotted about the rock, propped, and swung about to snarl at the man
scent.
It was a gray wolf, evil-eyed, with bloodstained jowls.
"Fine," Conroy said, getting to his feet. "The wolves have come, Yeyik.
That means the tail end of the herds, with the packs pulling down the
stragglers.
"I told you there was a break, but you wouldn't listen. Had a hunch you'd
jump, too, but you did it too soon.
"That impulse to kill is hard to resist, eh? Well, the thing worked out all
right, but I lost a damn good hat. Headquarters will likely soak me seven
dollars and a half for another one. Hold still! I want that knife. All right,
Yeyik, up on the rock."
They climbed the bowlder. Conroy picked up his Colt, reloaded it, and then
pitched Yeyik's knife away. Once more they squatted down, watching the
fleeting gray shapes relentlessly hunting the aged animals and the
weaklings, as the last of the herds milled past the rock.
An hour later, but for the two men padding over the hard-packed snow
toward the post, the Barren Lands was a soundless, lifeless void.
THE END.

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