Part 23 (1/2)
Quite a number of the smaller seals on the flanks had got by, and as the pressure lessened, the array of the centre partook more of the ”open order” of advance. To a party as well armed as the four friends, this change a.s.sured a bloodless victory. Each missile, fired point-blank, did its work, and the huge monsters, unable to seize the agile hunters, as they eluded their ponderous charge, received the fatal shot at such close range that the fur around the wound was often scorched by the burning powder.
Every barrel had been discharged, nine hooded seals had fallen, and the survivors had already reached the open water; but frightened by the unwonted sights and sounds, many of the smaller seals still remained at the upper end of the valley, or with awkward speed were climbing the sloping ice-hills which sheltered it. Drawing an axe from his belt, Regnar started forward in pursuit. Peter and Waring, with clubs of hard wood, followed, and La Salle, reloading his ponderous weapon, brought up the rear.
A ma.s.sacre of helpless and beautiful animals followed, for the next few moments, for Regnar, with a single tap on the nose, killed two Greenland seals; and following his example, Peter and Waring disposed of as many more. Suddenly a loud cry from the latter broke the silent butchery.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”AND THE NEXT SECOND THE GLITTERING TEETH WERE ABOUT TO CLOSE UPON HIS HELPLESS VICTIM.” Page 237.]
”Look! Stop that old hood! That makes ten. My goodness! I never see such seal! That's right, Peter, head him off. Hit him again, Waring! Take that, you old bladder-nose!”
The seal, a monstrous one, a veteran male, had attempted to scale the higher mounds, but surrounded by his more agile enemies, halted and showed fight. In vain Waring and Peter showered tremendous blows upon his head with their beechen clubs, and even the heavy axe of Orloff fell upon his natural helmet of air-distended skin, with a violence whose only effect was to increase the anger of the enraged amphibia, and fill the scene of the strife with hollow sounds, like the hoa.r.s.e booming of a big drum.
At last Waring missed his aim, and his club, which was slung at his wrist by a kind of sword knot, was seized in the jaws of the seal, and his succeeding rush jerked the frightened lad from his footing beneath the fore-flippers of the animal. It was only the work of an instant for those terrible jaws to grind the club into splinters, and the next second the glittering teeth were about to close upon his helpless victim. At that juncture a huge rusty tube was thrust past Regnar's head into the very face of the seal; a tremendous concussion threw him upon the ice, stunned and deafened; and the monster, rearing into the air, seemed to be fairly dashed to the ice, s.h.i.+vering with the tremor of death.
”Are you hurt, George?” asked La Salle, breathless with haste and restrained emotion.
”No, Charley; I am safe, thanks to you.”
And the lad, still weak with his previous illness, fear, and excitement, rose, threw his arms around his preserver's neck, and burst into a pa.s.sion of tears.
”Better look, Regnar. Guess blow him head off too,” grumbled Peter, with a strange mixture of vexation, pleasure, and humor in his tone, for he loved Regnar, disliked to see men or boys cry, and knew that Regnar's misadventure was more unpleasant than dangerous.
In a moment or so Regnar arose, holding his head with both hands, and an evident feeling of uncertainty as to his whereabouts.
”Well, you call that gun Baby! I don't want her crying anywhere near me, after this. I say, La Salle, you _sure_ my head all right on shoulders?”
La Salle hastened to a.s.sure him that all was correct, but Regnar gave a grim smile, and continued:--
”It no use; I can't hear, not if it thunder. I've no doubt you say you're sorry, but I no hear your 'pology, and I don't think I ever shall again. Well, never mind. No time then to say, 'By your leave, sir,' and I glad George got clear all right.”
Drawing their knives the party commenced the less pleasant and exciting task of flaying and butchering their victims. The ten ”hoods” were enormous fellows, averaging eight feet in length, and nearly six in circ.u.mference, and weighing from five to six hundred weight each. Only two were eviscerated for the sake of the heart and membranous vessels; but the heads of all were struck off for the sake of the brains, and the large sinews were extracted for ”sewing thread.” It was noon when the first load was sent off, under the care of Regnar and La Salle, to the home berg, and, two hours later, when they returned to the floe, they found, with pleasure, that the distance between the two points had materially lessened.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
Climbing the highest point of the floe, La Salle looked down upon a strange spectacle. Reaching away a mile or two to windward was a succession of floes, similar to the one on which he stood. Upon them all the seals were gathered in hundreds, and beyond the last of the chain a huge iceberg--a perfect mountain of congealed water--rose nearly a hundred feet into the air. From its sides, resplendent with prismatic colors and reflected light, flashed more than one cascade of pure fresh water, and the light breeze, as it blew against its vertical walls, or perhaps some currents deep down below the surface, was impelling the huge ma.s.s, and the line of floes pushed before it, down the lane of open water, which led to the floating home of the wanderers.
”We shall have but a short distance to row this load,” said La Salle, as he descended to the party; and indeed at that very moment the discolored mound, surmounted by its dusky banner, appeared in sight, and before long only about a quarter of a mile separated the two. At this point the undetermined cause which had produced this change ceased, and the party rowed homeward with their last load, just in time as the pack closed in, and the channel through which they had rowed, in the morning, over a gla.s.sy expanse of nearly a mile in width, narrowed, until, with a shock which was wholly unexpected, so gradual and gentle seemed the motion, the opposing borders were again united, and the waves of the sea were no longer accessible.
That evening the party supped off fried seal liver and heart, and found them fully up to the standard of excellence expressed by Regnar, who said,--
”Reindeer steak good beef, ptarmigan good beef, brent good beef, seal liver best beef of all.”
Before going to bed La Salle cut into the ice-hole, which had been filled some days before with salt water. After much cutting, he came to about two quarts of water, which seemed thick and heavy. Baling this, with a rude spoon, into their only iron utensil, it was placed amid the embers, and left to boil away for the evening, while the adventurers, gathering around their fire took counsel as to what step was to be taken next.
”Let us make a tent,” said Waring. ”First thing we know this old floe will split in two in a storm, and we shall have no house.”
”Spose 'em lose house, we want clo'es. Need good boots too,” said Peter, who was indeed but poorly provided in this respect, compared with the rest of the four adventurers.
”If we have a good boat, we have shelter on land or water,” said Regnar, sententiously.
”Regnar is right, and we must enlarge the capacity of our boat. She has too little standing room, and we four should have little chance in her in a heavy storm at sea. To-morrow we will make her into a life-boat at once, for this pleasant weather cannot last long.”