"It"s just like this, ye see," he continued. "I"m paid by my employers to make observations on the old island down yonder; stopping here ain"t taking sights, but it"s taking the company"s dollars for nothing, so if you"ll--either o" ye--lend me a hand or two, and promise to hoist up Cobb"s c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.l in the event of a squeeze, Cobb himself is off home, "tain"t mor"n fifty miles."
The journey was a dangerous one, n.o.body knew that better than the bold American himself, and it was a true sense of duty to his employers that caused him to undertake it. But having once made up his mind to a thing, Cobb was not the man to be deterred from accomplishing it.
So, with many a good wish for his safety, accompanied by only three men, he set out on his long journey over the snow. Rory, from the deck of the _Arrandoon_, and McBain from the nest, watched them as long as they were in sight. Indeed, I am not at all sure that Rory did not feel a little sorry he had not asked leave to accompany them, so fond was he of adventure in every shape and form.
It was a relief for him--and not for him alone--when McBain, in order to break the monotony of existence, and by way of doing something, proposed trying the effects of his torpedoes again at some distance from the ship, and forming a great ice-hole.
"Things will come up to breathe, and look about them, you know," he explained, "and then we may get some sport, and Silas may bag a seal or two."
Our heroes were overjoyed when the working party was called away. At last there was a prospect of doing something, and seeing an animal of some kind, for not only the bears, but the very birds had deserted them.
Sometimes, indeed, a solitary s...o...b..rd would come flying around the ships. It would hover for awhile in the air, giving vent to many a peevish, mournful chirp, then fly away again.
"No, no, no!" it seemed to say, "there is nothing good to eat down there--no raw flesh, no blood--and so I"m off again to the distant sealing ground, where the yellow bear prowls, and the snow is red with blood."
A few hours" work with torpedoes, picks, and ice-saws, was enough to form an opening big enough for the purpose required. The broken pieces were either "landed high and dry," or sunk beneath the pack, and so the work was completed.
"It"ll entail a deal of trouble, gentlemen," said Dr McFlail, "to keep that hole clear with the temperature which we are at present enjoying-- or rather enduring."
"There is that in the sea, doctor," said Silas, with a knowing nod, "which will save us the trouble."
He wasn"t wrong. Not an hour elapsed ere a few black heads, with great wondering eyes, appeared above the surface and peered around them, and blinked at the sun, and seemed to enjoy mightily a sniff of the fresh air and a blink of the daylight.
"This is nice, now," they said, "and ever so much better than being down there in the dark--quite an oasis in the desert."
Bang! bang!
Two of them slowly sank to rise no more.
"This won"t do," said Allan; "it is only murder to shoot poor seals that we cannot land and make some good out off. What is to be done?"
"Be quiet with ye!" said Rory. "Sure yonder is Seth himself, coming straight from the ship, in his suit of skins, and if he isn"t up to some manoeuvre then my name isn"t Roderick, that is all."
Seth _was_ up to something; he had a coil of rope with him, and the nattiest little harpoon that ever was handled.
"Fire away, gentlemen!" he said, lying down on the sunny side of a small hummock pretty close to the water"s edge, "only don"t hit the old trapper; he"d rather die in his bed if it be all the same to you."
Undeterred by the fate that had befallen their companions, it was not long before other seals popped up to breathe. Our heroes were ready for them, and two again were killed, one being missed. Seth was ready for them, too. He sprang to his feet, and ere the smoke had melted in the thin air, one of the seals was neatly harpooned and dragged to the edge.
Here it was gaffed, and lifted or pulled bodily on to the ice by help of Ralph"s powerful arm. The harpoon was released, and before the other seal had time to sink it was served in precisely the same manner.
The sport was exceedingly novel, and combined, as Rory said, "all the pleasures of shooting and fishing in one glorious whole."
No work on natural history, so far as my reading goes, remarks upon the exceedingly great speed exhibited by the Greenland seal in his flight-- it is in reality a flight--through and beneath the water. I have often been astonished at the rapidity of their movements; so swiftly do they dart along that the eye can barely follow them for the moment or two they are visible. This power of swimming enables them to pursue their finny prey for many miles under an ice-pack; it doubtless also enables them to escape the fangs of their natural enemy, the great Greenland shark (_Scymnus borealis_), and on the present occasion it accounted for their appearance at the great breathing-hole made for them by the torpedoes and ice-saws of the _Arrandoon_. The water under the pack would be everywhere else as black and dark as midnight, but through this opening the sunshine would stream in straight and powerful rays, and not seals alone, but fishes and monsters of the deep of many kinds, would naturally come towards the light, as the salmon does to the glimmer from the torch of the Highland poacher.
The sport obtained at the opening was not of a very exciting character on the first day, but next morn, to their joy, they found that a bear had been around, and had left the marks of his broad soles in the snow.
Many more seals, too, came up to breathe, and more harpoons had to be requisitioned. Silas was once more in his glory at the prospect of adding a few more skins, and a few more tons of oil, to the cargo he had already shipped.
Towards afternoon the fun grew fast and furious, and when Peter came in person to announce dinner, he could hardly get his officers to pay any heed to the summons. Even c.o.c.kie down in the saloon heard the noise, and must needs inquire, as he stretched his neck and fastened one bead of an eye on his little black master.
"What"s all the to-do about? What"s all the to-do about?"
"I don"t know," was the reply of Freezing Powders. "I don"t know no more nor you do, c.o.c.kie. I tinks dey has gone to blow derselves all to pieces again."
Dinner was partaken of in a merrier mood that day than it had been for weeks. Silas was there, of course; in fact, he had become an honorary member of the _Arrandoon_ mess.
"You see, Captain Grig," McBain had observed, "we must have you as much with as now as we can, for we soon go different roads, don"t we?"
"Ah! yes," replied Silas, with a bit of a sigh; "you go north; G.o.d send you safe back; and I go back to my little wife and large family."
"Happy reunion, won"t it be?" said Allan.
The eyes of Silas sparkled, but his heart was too full of happy thoughts to say more than simply,--
"Yes."
"Won"t the green ginger fly?" said Rory.
"I say, boys," Ralph put in, "this sort of thing positively gives a man a kind of an appet.i.te."
Rory looked at him with such a mischievous twinkle in his eyes that Ralph longed to pinch him.
"Just as if ever you lost yours," said Rory.
At this moment the sound of a rifle was heard, apparently close to the ship.
"It"s the trapper," cried Rory; "it"s friend Seth. Sure enough I know the charming music of his long gun. Now, Ray, I"ll wager my fiddle he has bagged a bear."
Rory was right for once, and here is how it fell out. Several bears had that day scented the battle from afar, or were attracted by the noise of the malleys and gulls that were now wheeling around the ships in thousands. They stood aloof while shooting was going on, sitting on their haunches licking their chops, greedy, hungry, expectant; but as soon as the sportsmen went off to dine,--
"Now is our time," said one, "to get a bit of fresh meat."
"Come on, then," cried another; "there are a hundred seals lying on the ice. Hurrah?"
So down they came to the feast. They had not had such a treat for a whole day, and that is a long time for a bear to fast, and they made good use of their time, you may be sure, and so earnest were they, that they did not perceive a long, hairy creature that came creeping stealthily towards them. When at last one of them did observe this strange animal "with the tail of his eye," he said to himself,--
"Oh! it is only a tiny bit of a young seal, hunting for a lost mother, perhaps. Well, I"ll have it presently by way of dessert."
And almost immediately after, the sound that had startled our friends at _their_ dessert rang out in the clear, frosty air, and Bruin"s head dropped never more to rise. His brother bears suddenly discovered they had eaten enough; anyhow, they remembered that it was always best to rise up from the table feeling that you could eat a little more, so they shambled away across the pack as fast as four legs could carry them.
"Bravo, Seth, old boy," cried Rory and Allan, coming on the scene.
Ralph only waited to finish some pastry, then he too joined them.
"Why," said the latter, "it is the biggest bear we have seen yet."
In true trapper fashion, Seth was already on his knees beside the enormous carca.s.s, engaged with knife and fist and elbow, "working the rascal out of his jacket," as he called it, when Rory, who was not far from the edge of the water, started, or rather sprang back in horror.
"Oh! Allan, Allan! Ray, Ray! look!" he cried.