The Arctic legions

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

76834

Title

The Arctic legions

Language

en

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

Set against the relentless migration of caribou in the Barren Lands, Corporal Conroy and the half-breed killer Yeyik engage in a tense standoff. Blending humor, danger, and the harsh realities of the Arctic, this tale explores the thin line between hunter and hunted while showcasing the resilience of men facing nature's fury.

Summary up to 500 words

In A. De Herries Smith's *The Arctic Legions*, Corporal Conroy of the Royal North-West Mounted Police and Yeyik, a notorious half-breed known as the 'Yellowknife killer,' find themselves stranded in the desolate Barren Lands during a massive caribou migration. The narrative captures the suffocating tension between the two men, defined by mutual suspicion, cultural friction, and dark humor. Conroy, a seasoned Mountie with a reputation for speed and cunning, is constantly wary of Yeyik, who possesses a revolver cleverly rigged to a moccasin tie-string to avoid detection. Yeyik, a skilled but erratic hunter with a savage reputation for slaughtering deer and men alike, attempts to assert dominance over Conroy, taunting him while pacing restlessly amidst the monotonous clicking of hooves. The sheer volume of migrating caribou creates an oppressive atmosphere, driving the travelers to the brink of madness. The constant noise and the visual spectacle of thousands of animals pressing forward for the shelter of the Last Woods amplify the psychological strain. The tension escalates dangerously when Yeyik, unable to resist the impulse to kill, begins firing his revolver into the herd, killing several deer and attracting the attention of wolves. Realizing that both the stampeding animals and Yeyik's instability pose a lethal threat, Conroy devises a daring intervention. In a moment of lightning speed, he uses his Stetson to distract Yeyik, tackling the half-breed and throwing him onto a fleeing caribou. Together, the pair escape the immediate stampede, only to face a new danger as wolves, attracted by the blood, begin hunting the stragglers. After the wolves clear the weakened animals, the men regroup. Conroy discards Yeyik's knife and retrieves his own weapon, signaling a temporary truce born of survival. They watch the last of the herds pass, leaving the Barren Lands a soundless, lifeless void. The story concludes with the pair making their way back to the police post, having survived a harrowing encounter that tested their courage and sanity, emerging from the wilderness with a renewed, albeit scarred, understanding of the forces that govern the Arctic.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

Download URL

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76834.epub.noimages

Local file path

data/epubs/pg76834.epub

Removed after upload

Downloaded at

2026-07-02 13:15 UTC

Categories

• Short Stories
• Canadian Fiction
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police Fiction
• Mixed-Race Characters
• Caribou Migration