C Ihe Ladies c cu. V'VVAN - History and Classics, Department of

77~ The UnrelentiNorthIn the middle of that radiant Arctic night, when the prosecutorandIwere walking back to the steamer after the Eskimo celebrations, I said to him: "Iwould give anything to meet some of those members of the jury and talk to them.They have the most interesting faces." And indeed, with that plain hard-bittenrascality writ large on human features they seemed to me unique. My companionlooked rather surprised but he said nothing. Next morning I met him saunteringabout that silent place where everyone was still "under the covers.""If you really want to know one of those members of the jury," he said, "I willintroduce you to their leader, Captain Cameron, before I go out. He and I foregathereda year or two ago on Herschel Island. He is a rough old sea-dog, but Ihave warned him that you are ladies and that he must curb his tongue accordingly."'"Ladies?''' I said, in a tone of resentment, "how could you have said such athing? Of course it will cramp his style.""Oh you can easily take the lid off that," answered the barrister airily, "comealong down to the shore and we'll look for him."We found him on the shore, occupied with his new schooner. She was beachedand lying sideways while he was putting in a new engine and outfitting her for thewhite whaling season, for he had piled up his last ship, the Bon'91 Belle, in a galeduring the previous summer. In the days that followed he and I had many a yarntogether. Taking a spell off work and puffing at his old black pipe, he would sitbeside me on the mud bank above the shore where the Eskimos were encampedand the huskies were tied to posts implanted in the mud while their little fleet of