Jim and Jack were sitting on the bushy plumage of their tails, their bright eyes fixed on their master, waiting for orders. They would have loved it had he told them to chase that black speck far out at sea. They would have gone on till they dropped, at his lightest word.
"No, boys, you wait here," he said. "You"re goin" to help me haul it back--when I get it. But gettin" it is somethin" I gotta do all by my lonely. Now, you stay right here an" wait for me. Don"t you dast to come no nearer!" He shook his finger at them solemnly.
They seemed to understand. They curled up and lay down in the thin powdery snow-blanket.
"Now then," muttered Tom, "I gotta creep an" creep an" crawl an" crawl till I get near, an" then I gotta lie down an" sc.r.a.pe along on my tummy same as if I was a seal myself. That"s what I gotta do."
Suiting the action to the word, he started on, watching all the time that little dark spot on which all depended.
He could imagine the children waiting at home and asking their mother every little while: "When"s Papa comin" back? Is he goin" to bring us somepin" to eat?"
"I wonder if that there Grenfell man is ever goin" to git this far north?" Tom asked himself as he crept toward the seal. "If us could only git a chance to sell our fish for better"n two cents a pound, after us gets "em salted an" dried! Them traders, they bleeds the life outa us. They say Grenfell when he comes is a-goin" to fight them traders an" put "em outa business!"
The swift wind was throwing stinging bits of ice, sharp as needles, in his face. He drew his cap about his ears more closely and plodded on.
The further he walked the further away the seal seemed to be. He was half crouching as he walked: he wished he might cover himself with a skin and crawl on all fours. But if he started to crawl now--he felt as though it would be a year before he could get near enough to shoot.
"Please, G.o.d"--he spoke to G.o.d as naturally as to his family--"bless this ole gun an" make her shoot straight and he"p me knock that seal over, the first shot. For it don"t look like there"s goin" to be more"n one shot, an" if I don"t kill her there"s my whole family"s goin" to starve and mebbe a whole lot o" other people that"s a-lookin"
for what they think I"m a-goin" to bring back."
Now it was time to flatten himself down on the ice and sc.r.a.pe along, like another seal. It was hard work--try it yourself, if you don"t think so!--and it took lots of patience.
Now he could see the seal raise its head and look about. He mustn"t give it a chance to ask questions of the wind, because the wind might say: "Look out, Mr. or Mrs. Seal! There"s a man creeping and creeping toward you with a gun, and in a minute that man is going to shoot, and you"ll be sorry you hung around here and didn"t dive through the ice the very first second your nose told you you"d better!"
He raised his gun, and prayed again--this time a very short prayer: "O Lord, bless this gun!" And he fired.
The black spot had not vanished. It was motionless. "Did I hit him?"
Tom asked himself. "Better try another shot an" make sure."
He was a long time sighting--and he imagined the spot moved a little as he did so.
Then he fired again.
There it was still. Now he dared to believe he had hit the seal.
Dragging the gun he crawled nearer and nearer. Still the seal did not move.
Now he could see the whole animal clearly.
The sight was joyful.
"Glory be!" he shouted. Then he jumped up and capered about madly on the ice. It was a nice, fat, luscious, flipper seal and dead as a door-nail. Enough for a banquet for all of the tiny village of St.
Anthony. And if Dr. Grenfell should be there when he and the dogs got back with it, the Doctor should have the largest, tenderest, juiciest steak of all.
The wind was setting toward the dogs. He could barely see them there, far, far behind him--making a black spot where they slept, exactly as though they were another seal.
So he put two fingers to his lips and blew a long, shrill blast.
It was the signal for which they had been waiting. On they came like two wild young race-horses, each eager to be first to greet their master.
They must have known well enough that he had killed the seal. They had hunted with him so often that if they had been human the man and the dogs could hardly have spoken to each other and understood better.
"Good old Jim! Good old Jack!" The dogs bounced round him like india rubber, mad with delight.
"Look what we gotta take back! Ain"t that somethin" to make the old lady"s eyes pop outa her head? First big seal"s been caught off here for months! Enough to save the whole village from starvation. An" you dogs is to have some of it too, all o" you. Here"s to begin with!"
He drew his clasp-knife and snicker-snacked two good-sized bits from the tail of the fallen monarch. He threw the meat to the dogs, who had it down in a gulp and a swallow and then stood with their ears up, like the Jack-in-the-pulpit, to know if there would be more.
"No, boys, that"s enough to start back on!" He produced straps and ropes from the bread-bag and rigged up a harness so that the dogs might haul the seal, giving himself the end of a rope, to pull more than his share of the heavy carca.s.s.
"Wisht we could git a coupla polar bears too!" he laughed. "But I don"t know how we could pull to the sh.o.r.e any more"n what we got here. Well, when we"ve got this et we"ll be comin" back fer more, won"t we, boys?"
And the dogs, tugging and wagging as they plodded sh.o.r.eward, seemed to agree.
In spite of the weight of the seal, the trip back did not seem nearly so long. For you know how it is--when your heart is light any burden you carry doesn"t count for nearly so much.
Tom Bradley in spite of pulling so hard was singing to himself like a kettle on a stove. And the dogs, too, would have spared breath to bark joyously, if huskies ever barked. But no well-bred husky makes remarks of that sort.
Tom stopped to rest, and sat on an ice-hummock, the dogs with their heads against his knee, their tongues lolling out.
""Member that time we chased the ole bear?" he laughed. "That was the time I couldn"t do nothing with you! You was young dogs then, an" you got so excited you wouldn"t listen to nothin"!
"You just went a-racin" an" a-tearin" on from the time you seen "im.
O" course, as a driver don"t have no reins, an" we only got a whip, we can"t pull you up if you really wanta go. We can just holler "left" an" "right" an" "stop" an" "go ahead." But my oh my! We sure did stack up against trouble that day.
"You an" the rest o" the team, you waded right into that bear before I"d got you cut loose from the traces. The air was full o" bear-meat an" dog-fur flyin". Guess the bear didn"t know no difference between you an" wolves. There"s many a man has made the same mistake.
"There was old Mr. Bear standin" up on his hind legs battin" away like he was wound up, handin" out punishment like it was a boxin" match, and you fellows hollerin" b.l.o.o.d.y murder.
"You done more"n wolves would "a" done. Wolves wouldn"t "a" tackled a bear that way--unless it was a great big crowd o" wolves an" one lone, lorn, small bear.
"He was a buster, he was, an" there was only six o" you. But you stood right up-ta him all right! You remember, don"t you?"
Jim and Jack flopped their tails on the ice as if to say yes. Their mouths were wide open--it looked as if they were laughing in delight to be reminded of the battle.
"Say, you dogs certainly are the willin", hard-workin" fellers when you"re fed up right. I believe you"d rather haul a sled than eat. You rascals! "Member the time you et my gloves just as I was goin" to start? I had to larrup outa you that trick you had when you was young o" gobblin" your own harness when you wasn"t watched. I sure do hate to hit you. One o" these whips "ll bite a hole in a door twenty feet off: I"ve seen ole Pop Rinker drive a nail in a board with one.
"When we get back, if that ther Dr. Grenfell has come we"ll get some other dogs an" take him out for a ride. He"ll have to have a team o"
dogs. Can"t get along in this country without you dogs--not till they have reindeer. Heaven knows, the Doctor"ll have miles and miles o"
country to cover, to get round to all the people hereabouts that needs him. Ain"t it a great an" mighty blessin" this country"s now a-goin"
to have a doctor all our own, all our very own?"
When they got back to the hamlet with their seal, there was a jollification.
Tom Bradley could have been Mayor, or King, or anything he wanted.
There was plenty of one thing in that place--and that was fire-wood, from the spruces and firs alongsh.o.r.e.
So they built a monstrous pyramid, big enough to cook twenty seals, and round the community bonfire they collected, dogs and all, for a feast. The children shouted in glee and clapped their hands. The mothers were happier for themselves than for their babies. And their joy was the greater because word had come that Dr. Grenfell was finding his way in the little steamer, the _Julia Sheridan_, through a channel behind the islands and was likely to be in their midst at any hour of any day.