The Arctic legions

About the book

Corporal Conroy and Yeyik occupy a precarious refuge on a boulder while migrating caribou stream around them. Yeyik has the policeman's revolver, but the surrounding animals make escape dangerous for either man and turn possession of the weapon into only one part of the struggle. Conroy watches for an opening while using conversation, provocation, and the relentless sound of hooves to unsettle his opponent. The confined space gives this northern adventure the intensity of a duel, with physical endurance and psychological pressure closely linked. Its portrayal of the Indigenous antagonist uses the racial stereotypes of period frontier fiction. The distinctive suspense comes from the landscape's refusal to remain a passive backdrop: the migration controls the men's movement, time, and available choices.

• Survival and confinement
• Psychological rivalry
• Human conflict and nature

Why read it

The river of migrating animals creates an unusually vivid and restrictive setting for a two-person contest.

English story from Argosy All-Story Weekly, March 2, 1929