Part 33 (2/2)
”Watch out!” I heard Maud screa notice of other things, and I looked up to see the lord of the hareain I fled to the boat, hotly pursued; but this ti back
”It would be better, I iine, if you let harems alone and devoted your attention to lonely and inoffensive-looking seals,” hat she said ”I think I have read so about the bulls, not old enough to have harems of their own He called the like that It seems to me if we find where they haul out-”
”It seehed
She flushed quickly and prettily ”I'll admit I don't like defeat anysuch pretty, inoffensive creatures”
”Pretty!” I sniffed ”I failed topre-eminently pretty about those foamy-mouthed beasts that raced hed ”You lacked perspective Now if you did not have to get so close to the subject-”
”The very thing!” I cried ”What I need is a longer club And there's that broken oar ready to hand”
”It just co me how the men raided the rookeries They drive the seals, in small herds, a short distance inland before they kill the of one of those harems,” I objected
”But there are the holluschickie,” she said ”The holluschickie haul out by themselves, and Dr Jordan says that paths are left between the hare as the holluschickie keep strictly to the path they are unmolested by the masters of the hare bull in the water ”Let's watch him, and follow him if he hauls out”
He swa between two hare noises but did not attack hi the hareoes,” I said, stepping out; but I confess h the heart of that monstrous herd
”It would be wise to make the boat fast,” Maud said
She had stepped out beside arded her onder with you, so you may as well secure the boat and aro back,” I said dejectedly ”I think tundra grass, will do, after all”
”You knoon't,” was her reply ”Shall I lead?”
With a shrug of the shoulders, but with the warmest admiration and pride at heart for this woman, I equipped her with the broken oar and took another for myself It ith nervous trepidation that we made the first few rods of the journey Once Maud screamed in terror as a cow thrust an inquisitive nose toward her foot, and several times I quickened hs frons of hostility It was a rookery which had never been raided by the hunters, and in consequence the seals were mild-tempered and at the same time unafraid
In the very heart of the herd the din was terrific It was ally at Maud, for I had recovered my equanimity sooner than she I could see that she was still badly frightened She came close to me and shouted:
”I'h the novelty had not yet worn off, the peaceful comport
”I' jaws ”It's ht,” I reassured her, ly around her
I shall never forget, in that moment, how instantly conscious I became of my manhood The primitive deeps of my nature stirred I feltmale And, best of all, I felt ainsteased away it seeth I felt myself a match for the most ferocious bull in the herd, and I know, had such a bull charged upon ly and quite coolly, and I know that I should have killed it