  Several moments passed before Dick could recover his presence of mind, so great was the shock he had received upon discovering the savage marauders that were destroying their camp. A vision of Sandy’s mangled form sprang up in his mind, and he covered his eyes and groaned. But he was not one to let mere imagination long affect him when action was needed. “Take the bear on the right, Toma,” his voice came clear and steady. “They’ll probably attack us as soon as we fire. Ready, aim, fire!” The report of the rifles and the sting of the well placed bullets brought the polar bears back on their haunches, and they whirled to face whatever enemy had attacked them. But Dick and Toma had fallen on their stomachs in the snow immediately after firing, and the bears could not see them. The great beasts turned and renewed their wrecking of the camp dunnage, whereupon Dick gave the order to fire again. Now badly wounded, and puzzled because they could not see where the burning missiles came from, the bears began lumbering around in a circle, growling savagely. Dick and Toma fired once more from their prone and hidden position and the bears decided the territory was too hot for them. Leaving a trail of blood drops behind them, they trotted off up the slope of the glacial ridge, disappearing among the numerous boulders strewn upon the slope. No more were the bears gone than Dick and Toma rushed to the torn up camp, calling Sandy’s name. At first there was no reply and in the death-like stillness Dick felt an icy chill of horror steal over him as once more he imagined what had befallen Sandy. Then, very faintly, there came an answering shout, seeming to come out of the snow-smothered earth itself. “Sandy, where are you!” Dick cried gladly, looking everywhere but failing to see any sign of his chum. “Just a minute, and I’ll be with you,” came the voice again, unmistakably Sandy’s but for some reason half-choked and indistinct. Then, out of a big snowdrift a hundred yards from camp, popped Sandy, covered from head to foot with snow. Dick and Toma ran to meet him, overjoyed at his safety. “I thought those bears had finished you sure,” Dick said, much relieved. “Well, they weren’t far from doing just that,” Sandy retorted drily. “I was looking through the packs for a tin of tea, a little while ago, when I felt that something was behind me. I looked around and there were those two bears looking at me as if they were hungry. They weren’t more than thirty feet from me, and I’d left my rifle in the igloo. You can bet I didn’t stand in that spot very long. I made a flying start right straight ahead, and when I reached those holes in the snow where the dogs have been sleeping, I dived head first right into a big one, and dug myself further in. Maybe I wasn’t scared. I expected every minute to hear those bears digging in after me. About when I was pretty near smothered in the snow I heard you start shooting. Say, you came just in time. I’d have suffocated in that burrow in about two minutes more. And I believe I’d have passed out right there rather than show myself to those bears.” “Don’t forget to keep your rifle close to you after this,” Dick cautioned, though now that the danger was over he was amused at Sandy’s excited relating of his unique escape from the bears. “Bear meat heap good eat,” Toma spoke up. “Maybe one them bear die somewhere in rocks. We go see, huh?” “Not on your life,” Sandy declared emphatically. “I’ve seen all the bears I want to for to-day. I’ll be dreaming about bears chewing on me for a month.” Dick laughed. “I don’t blame you, Sandy, but I think Toma’s idea about following the bears is a good one. We need meat, you know, and you can see by the blood on the snow around here that one of them at least might have been wounded bad enough so that he’ll die later.” “All right, you fellows go ahead. I think I’ve had about all the trouble I’m going to have today, so you needn’t worry about me.” “I guess you have, alright,” Dick called over his shoulder as he set out after the bears. “We won’t be gone long.” Toma and Dick followed the plain trail left by the bears clear up the ridge to the east of the camp. But they did not catch sight of their quarry until they were some distance out on the flank of the glacier on the other side of the ridge. The young Indian then called Dick’s attention to a movement ahead of them. They saw one of the bears climbing to the top of a heap of ice, and crouched in hiding until the great beast had passed out of sight. Though they waited several minutes, a second bear did not appear, and so they thought it safe to go on. Not far from where they had sighted the one bear they discovered why the other had not appeared. He lay stone dead in a little hollow in the ice. An examination showed that two of their bullets had pierced the animal’s lungs. Only an animal of iron stamina could have traveled so far with such serious wounds. Cutting a huge haunch of steak from the bear’s hindquarters, the young hunters started back, their mouths already watering in anticipation of fresh bear steak. It was nearly eight o’clock by Dick’s watch when they reached the igloos once more, to find that Sandy had been busy in their absence and had repaired much of the damage done by the polar bears. Two hours later, snug in a warm igloo, Sandy requested Toma to tell them a bedtime story from his stock of Indian lore. Toma acquiesced willingly, and began in his broken, yet simple expressive English: “Long, long time ago, young Indian brave, by name Swift Foot, live by big water, by name Great Slave Lake. He very handsome brave. Him mother love him very much. His father great hunter. He have all food he can eat, warm wigwam in winter. No have to work. Him play all day, and when him tired he sleep. But him no happy. He look at stars and want know why the stars twinkle; him look at sun, want know why sun warm; him look at moon, want know why cannot reach it; him look at rainbow, want know why cannot catch him no matter how fast he run. “Swift Foot ask mother questions. She say, ‘Big Eagle, your father, great hunter and very wise. He tell you, my son.’ Swift Foot ask father questions. Father say, ‘Your grandfather old and wise, maybe he can tell you.’ Swift Foot ask his grandfather questions, but old man say he not know these things. “Bye an’ bye Swift Foot visit all old men in tribe, but none knew why stars twinkle, why sun shine, why he no can catch rainbow. “Swift Foot, him get very unhappy. Him no eat, no sleep. His mother think him going die. One day she tell him, ‘Swift Foot, you follow big water north till you come to great river. There you find old, old medicine man. He tell you why stars twinkle, why sun shine, why no catch rainbow.’ “Swift Foot him very glad then. Him jump in birch canoe an’ paddle fast. Many days him paddle along lake shore till he come to great river. When he come to shore old, old man, all dried up, waiting there to meet him. “When Indian boy ask old medicine man what he want know, old man ask him what he give to know all things. Swift Foot, he say he give everything he have. Medicine man ask him if he sure. Swift Foot say yes, he give everything to know, for he no want live longer if he can no catch rainbow. “Then medicine man build big fire and boil something in pot, while he dance round and round Swift Foot. After while Swift Foot feel strange. He feel like he getting smaller; he cannot see far with his eyes; him hands shake like leaves. “Pretty soon fire make big smoke—puff, puff. Smoke disappear, and old man, he gone. Swift Foot all alone on shore of big water, and he know all things. He know why stars twinkle, why sun shines, why he can no catch rainbow. He know so much he much afraid. He jump up, try to run to canoe. But he fall down hard. He get up, try to run again, but he no can run—he have to walk very slow. “When he get down to big water it is like mirror. He bend over and look down. Old, old man look back at him from water, oldest an’ ugliest man he ever see. He know then him give youth for great wisdom. No more him run an’ jump, no more him eat deer meat, for he have no teeth. He begin weep, an’ say he no want know all things, him want be young again. All day, all night he cry, but he not grow young again. “Then he paddle his canoe back to his mother, but she not know him. She laugh when he say he Swift Foot, her son. ‘My son beautiful young boy, you ugly, old man,’ she say. ‘Go ’way.’ “Swift Foot leave village then. Him go far away in forest where no man see him. One moon he no eat anything, but pray much to Great Spirit. Then him fall asleep. When wake up him feel strong again. He go down to pool of water and look in. Him jump up and make big, glad noise with mouth. Great Spirit answer prayer. Him young again. But he not remember why stars twinkle, why sun shines, why no can catch rainbow. “Swift Foot go back to his mother. She very glad to see him. He say to his mother he very happy now; him no want know why stars twinkle, why sun shines, why no can catch rainbow. He say he love them just the same. Many years him live happy. Make big hunter like him father, but him never wish for what he no can get.” “Gee, that was a great story!” Dick exclaimed. “Who told you that one?” “My mother,” Toma replied briefly, and for an instant the boys thought they detected the sparkle of tears in the dark eyes of the stoical young Indian. “That story had a moral to it just like one of Aesop’s Fables,” Dick said sleepily, as he crawled into his sleeping bag. “Guess we can’t have our cake and eat it too. Right, Sandy?” But a long, tuneful snore was the only reply Dick heard from Sandy. The boys slept soundly for nearly ten hours, and when they awakened they felt equal to any task that might present itself. First, they visited the bear Dick and Toma had killed the day before, and brought back all the meat they could carry on their backs. Since this left them well supplied with meat for themselves, Dick decided they had better make an effort to procure some seal or walrus meat for the dogs. Toma once more was elected to remain behind while Dick and Sandy went hunting. The boys found that the seal herd had moved a considerable distance eastward along the coast since they first had seen it. It took them an hour of climbing over rough shore ice before they reached a point opposite the seal herd. Even then, to their disappointment, they found that several large ice floes, jammed together, separated them from the seals. After some minutes of deliberation, they decided to venture out upon the ice, and get nearer the seals by jumping from one cake of ice to another. Thus they began a dangerous adventure, destined from the beginning to end in ill fortune, for they had not gone a hundred yards across the treacherous ice before both Dick and Sandy had slipped and narrowly saved themselves from a bad ducking, if not drowning, by clutching the edge of the floe which had been their objective when they leaped the open water. Resting on a large, secure floe, they noticed that the tide was going out and that frequently, from the outer edge of the ice-jam, a large fragment detached itself and floated out to sea. “I think we ought to go back,” Dick said once, but they did not want to turn back empty handed after having gone so far, so they kept on until they were within fifty feet of the nearest seals. “How tame they are!” exclaimed Sandy. “They seem just like dogs,” Dick added. “Probably no one has killed any of this herd for a long time. It seems a shame to shoot such innocent looking creatures.” “Well, you know we have to have food for the dogs,” Sandy argued with his tender heart. “In this country it’s eat or be eaten, and we need the dogs and not the seals.” “All right, then, suppose you shoot the first one,” Dick said a little sarcastically. Sandy tightened his lips, raised his rifle and took aim at the head of a fine young seal. Just then a baby seal flopped away from its mother’s side, directly on a line with Sandy’s sights. The baby seal stood up on its flippers and looked at the boys as cute as could be. Sandy expelled his breath in a disgusted gasp, and let his rifle fall to his hip. “Brave boy,” taunted Dick in fun. “If I wanted turkey for Thanksgiving I wouldn’t send you out to chop off its head.” “I can’t help it,” admitted Sandy. “I’ve felt this way before, but not so much as now. I don’t see how anyone can slaughter these animals by the hundreds even if their skins are so valuable.” Just then a big bull seal crawled up on the ice out of the water, making an angry noise in his throat. This old fellow was quite fierce looking and did not apparently take kindly to the presence of the boys. He reared up and fixed baleful eyes upon them, opening his huge, whiskered mouth to show his tusks. Neither of the boys felt the same sympathy for this new and hostile arrival, and Dick quickly raised his rifle and brought down the bull with one shot. At the sound of the rifle almost all of the seals took to the water hastily, swimming about and watching the man creatures from a distance. But the old bull did not move from where he had fallen. “The next problem is how are we going to get this big brute ashore.” “Gee, I never thought of that. I wonder how much he weighs,” said Sandy, going forward and trying to lift the dead animal. But the combined strength of both Dick and Sandy was only sufficient to drag the heavy body slowly across the ice. “He must weigh several hundred pounds,” Dick eyed their kill appraisingly. “I don’t think we’ll ever get him ashore, unless we cut him up and carry him in pieces.” So intent were the boys on the problem at hand that they had for several minutes lost all thought of their rather dangerous situation. It was Sandy who first discovered something wrong. It seemed to him the ice on which they stood was moving. “Dick, quick!” his voice was hoarse with fear. “This floe has broken away from the shore ice. What shall we do!” Dick wheeled toward the shore, taking in their predicament at a glance. “Run for it, Sandy. We may reach the gap before it’s too wide to jump!” |
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