tried to kill me. Kill me! Do you understand? Why shouldn't I kill him?"

"No kill," said the Eskimo stubbornly.

Johnny sat and thought for a full three minutes. In that time, his blood
had cooled. He was able to reason about the matter. In the army he had
learned one rule: "If someone knows more about a matter than you do,
follow his guidance, though, at the time, it seems dead wrong."
Evidently Iyok-ok knew more about this Russian than Johnny did. Then the
thing to do was to let the man go.

Before releasing him, he searched him carefully. Beyond a few
uninteresting papers, a pencil, a cigaret case and a purse he found
nothing. Evidently the revolver had been his only weapon.

As he searched the man, one peculiar question flashed through Johnny's
mind; if the Russian had the envelope full of diamonds on his person,
what should he do, take them or leave them? He was saved the necessity
of a decision; they were not there.

"Now," said Johnny, seating himself on a rusty pan, as the Russian went
shuffling out of the mine, "tell me why you didn't let me kill him."

"Can't tell," was Iyok-ok's laconic reply.

"Why?"

"Not now. Sometime, maybe. Not now."

"Look here," said Johnny savagely, "that man has tried to kill me or