Three patrols had been sent to Coronation Gulf and Bathurst Inlet since August.

With the first of those patrols, headed by Olaf Anderson, the Swede, he had come within an ace of going himself.

A rumor had come down to Churchill just before he left for the Barrens that Olaf's party of five men had been wiped out.

It was not difficult to understand why the Eskimos had attacked Celie Armin's father and those who had come ashore with him from the ship.

It was merely a question of lust for white men's blood and white men's plunder, and strangers in their country would naturally be regarded as easy victims.