Part 21 (1/2)

The second day's trareat surprise They were busily searching through the piles of cans for a possible one that had not been opened, when Lucile, happening to hear a noise behind her, looked up The next instant, with a startled whisper, which was almost a cry, ”Marian! Quick!” she seized Marian by the ared her around an ice-pile

”Wha--what is it?” whispered the startled Marian

”Bear!”

At this very moment, on another section of that sa the length of his rifle barrel

His brorinkled He ambler moves ould risk all on one throw of the dice but does not quite dare

He shook the benuripped the rifle once er He had arrived at a crisis He was half starved and freezing For three days now he had wandered over the vast expanse of ice-pans that covered the waters of Bering Straits During that three days he had secured only two ser all winter in the Arctic

These he had shared with Rover

Fro had settled down upon him and the break in the ice-floe had blocked his way so effectively, he had wandered about without knohere he was going The ice-floe constantly drifting, first this way, then that, may have carried hiuess his position on the surface of the ocean at the present moment?

A brown seal was the cause of his excite asleep upon the ice-pan before hi like seventy pounds This wasood shot and knew it He had wandered over the ice-floes of the ocean at times with a rifle under his arrimmest necessity could have induced hiether too hu brown heads as they appeared above the water or lifted to gaze about the desbeside his hole; if he was not killed instantly he would drop into the hole and be lost to the hunter And this was the last cartridge in the rifle The two birds had cost him four shots The seal must be secured by his last one There seemed a certain irony about a fate which would allow him to waste his ammunition on small birds, then offer him such a prize as this with only one shot to win

He kneell enough how to stalk a seal; he had watched the Eski flat on your stomach, you cautiously creep forward Every moment or two you bob your head up and down in i about If your seal is awake, since his eyesight is poor he will take you for a ain

Knowing all this, Phi had dragged hi the seal Only fifty feet rereat a distance Seeing his seal bobbing his head, he bobbed in turn, then, when the seal had dozed off again, continued his crawl

He had made another six yards when, with a sudden resolve, he slid the rifle forward, lifted it to position, glanced steadily along its barrel, then pulled the trigger

There followed a metallic snap, then a splash, The rifle had missed fire; the seal had dropped into its pool

For a moment the boy lay there motionless, stunned by the realization that he was still without food and was noerless to procure any

”Well, anyway it was luck for the seal,” he s unsteadily, he put two fingers to hisice pile, Rover, gaunt and , and, by his bearing, a one ti toward hi, ”it's hard luck, but we don't eat It's harder for you than for , but soe If only we knew If only--”

He stopped abruptly and his eyes opened wide Off to the left of the, there had appeared the dark bulk of a granite cliff

”Land, Rover, land!” he muttered hoarsely

The next moment, utterly overcome with excitement, he sank weakly to the surface of the ice-pan

”This won't do,” he said cheerily, after a brief period of rest

”Rover, old boy, wethat shore, which it must be from the feel of the wind, there's a chance for us yet”

CHAPTER XIV