The Haunted Igloo by Bonnie Turner Read Free Book Online

again.
“Sasha, would you rather look at Aiverk’s ugly face or be dead? ”
    Sasha dropped immediately
to her side. She lay without moving until Jean-Paul said,
“Sasha, up! ” And
she bounded up on all fours, barking and wagging her tail.
Jean-Paul was very proud of her and gave her a great big
hug.
    Chinook jumped up and down,
laughing so much he could hardly get his breath. He held his belly
and tried to stop laughing. Then he started in again, and laughed
and giggled until tears rolled down his cheeks.
    “ What’s the matter with him?” asked
Nanuk.
    Chinook stopped before
Nanuk and shook a finger in his face. “I was laughing because
Jean-Paul’s dog got the best of Aiverk! She would rather be dead
than look at his ugly mug!” He grinned at Jean-Paul. “How did you
teach her to do that, Okalerk ? ”
    “ I don’t tell people things when they
call me names!” Jean-Paul yelled. “I’m not a rabbit, Chinook! If I
tell you how I trained her, you have to stop calling me Okalerk ! ”
    “ Let’s go, Chinook,” said Nanuk,
turning away. “I don’t want to be seen talking to an okalerk .” He began
walking, calling to Aiverk over his shoulder. “You coming or
not?”
    But Chinook grabbed Nanuk’s
arm. “Wait! I want to hear what the okal ... I mean Monsieur Jean-Paul Ardoin has to say.
Maybe his dog goes to school. She comes here as often as we
do.”
    “ I won’t tell you the secret of
training your dogs to play dead, unless you promise to stop calling
me names.” Jean-Paul looked off into the distance and saw Cordell
driving his team over the snow. “My pa’s here to get me
now.”
    “ Why don’t you ride your dog home?”
asked Nanuk. “She’s just about your size.”
    Chinook turned his back on
his two friends and spoke to Jean-Paul. “So, your dog’s name is
Sasha?”
    “ Yes. It means ‘helper of
man.’”
    “ My dog’s name is Amarok,” Chinook
said. “That means ‘wolf.’”
    “ I already knew what it meant,”
Jean-Paul said. “But I’ve got to go now, Chinook. Pa’s almost
here.” He started to move away with Sasha at his heels.
    Chinook caught up with him
again. “Hey, Jean-Paul, would you like to join our Ice
Patrol?”
    “ Your club?” asked Jean-Paul,
surprised. “You want me?”
    “ We don’t want him! ” cried Nanuk.
    “ Why not?” asked Chinook. “He can
teach us lots of things about training dogs to die and come alive
again. Right, Jean-Paul? How about it, want to join?”
    Nanuk and Aiverk looked at
each other and shrugged. They knew it would do no good to argue
with Chinook, for he was their leader. It was he who came up with
all the neat ideas for their club. Now they watched him, and didn’t
like what they saw. It looked as though Chinook was trying to make
friends with Jean-Paul Ardoin. On the other hand, it might not be a
bad idea to wait and see what Chinook had up his sleeve.
    Jean-Paul looked warily
from one boy to another. It was obvious that Nanuk and Aiverk
didn’t want him, but he thought he could trust Chinook to handle
them.
    “ What would I have to do?” he
asked.
    “ Tell you what,” said Chinook. “You
meet us right here after school tomorrow and we’ll show you. Our
club’s fun. We go ice fishing and sledding and kayaking
and—”
    “— and girl watching,” said Aiverk. He nudged
Nanuk in the ribs and grinned.
    Cordell stopped his sled
and waited for Jean-Paul.
    “ Pa always picks me up after school.
How would I get home?”
    “ No problem,” Chinook replied with a
grin. “We’ll take you home, right guys?”
    “ That’s right,” said Nanuk. “We’ll
take you home after you get all signed up.”

    ____________

    T hat evening at the supper table, Jean-Paul said to Cordell,
“The boys want me to join their club, Pa.”
    Cordell stopped chewing and
looked at his son. “That right?”
    “ Um-hmmm.” Jean-Paul took a bite of
meat. From across the room, Sasha pricked up her ears and whined.
Then her black nose