stefansson-wrangel-09-32-096v

392 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

most anxious to “get” a white man. No chance as far as I'm
concerned.”

On February 7th as Knight became weak from the disease from
which he later died, he wrote, “The woman is a great deal more
frightened over my condition than I am, and I don’t deny that
it is a rather mean position in which she finds herself, but she is
wonderfully cheerful and is now busy sharpening the wood saw.
She insists on doing practically everything, and I willingly permit
her, for I am not able to do much.”

Later wrhen Knight’s illness progressed the entries in the un-
mutilated parts of the diary express occasional annoyance with
Ada Blackjack because she did not tend the traps and hunt as
energetically as he thought she should. These are printed in
Chapter XIII. It must be remembered that at this time she, too,
was ill, and that Knight’s own point of view had been already
somewhat modified by his disease, for pessimism and irritability
are among the recognized symptoms of scurvy.

Those who know the situation thoroughly, must agree with Lorne
Knight’s father who wrote in reply to Mr. Noice’s charge that Ada
Blackjack was responsible for, or could have prevented, the death
of his son: “I still maintain that Ada Blackjack was a real heroine
and that there is nothing to justify me in the faintest belief that
she did not do for Lorne all that she was able to do.”