TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION! STORIES FOUNDED 0N FACT! W 82-50 a year. Entered at the Post Office at New York. N. 1, as Second Class Mall Matter. Copyrighted in 1832 by BEADLE AND ADAMS. September 13, 1882. . Number- No. 98 WILLIAM STREET, NEW YORK. Five Cam-r THE 10E ELEPHANT; or, THE CASTAWAYS OF THE LINE Cum. BY CAPT. FREDERICK WHITTAKEB, AUTHOR OF “WOODS A51) WATERS,” “RIFLE AND REVOLVER,” “THE DASHING DRAGOON,” ETC., ma, ETC. Single PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY BEADLE AND ADAMS, Price, ,r fio 40‘ HSEE DE WATER HAS T’AWED HIM OUT; BIS TRUNK TOSS. HE VILL BE CARRIED OUT TO SEA BEFORE VERY LONG." 2 The Ice Elephant. The Ice Elephant; The Castaways of the Lone Coast. ’ A Story of Three Bold Boys in the Frozen North. ' BY CAPT. FREDERICK WHITTAKER, AUTHOR or “LANCE AND Lnsso,” “THE LOST CAPTAIN,” ETO., nro. CHAPTER I. , BEHRINo’s STRAITS. IN the New York papers, in 1878, appeared, late in July, the follOwing paragraph: “The North Pacific steam whaling fleet, to the number of twenty-seven vessels, was nipped in the ice of Behring’s Straits, on the 2lst,of May last and totally destroyedx Less than a hundred were of the creme reached Sltka, Alaska, after suflerlng great hardships. The sealing-steamer Panther, owned and commanded by Captain James Beadle, of Salem, Mass, was the first to be caught between two enormous icebergs and not asoul of her crew escaped. Captain Beadle leaves a widow in Salem. The other vessels were English, Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes." This was what the papers said, in the fewest poaklble words, telegra‘phmg being costly work. The paragraph wen the rounds, was copied, commented on, and then forgotten, which was the last the public ever thought of the matter. Nevertheless, under that brief notice lay hidden one of the strangest stories of modern times, wherein three boys, one of them a true born Yankee, figured as heroes, 8. etc proven true by the return of all three to So em, hale and hearty, two years later. To tell it, we must go to the place where the “ nip _” occurred, and fill up the details of the newspaper dparagraph. The seas n ha been unusually open that car, , and miles of dark water had been found w ere, ‘usually, deserts of ice hummocks, with hergs interlocked, rendered the avenueto the Pole im- passable. ‘ ' One by one the sw1ft whaling steamers, rounded Oonemak Point, and steamed into the waters of Bristol Bay, to the rendezvous at the r ’ island of Nunnevik. ‘ 0n the second day, when the sun made its usual di toward the horizon and climbed up again w thout setting, a column of smoke inthe south warned them of the coming of another steamer, and along, swift, rakish looking craft, 'with a black and gilt panther for a figurohea dashed up to the island and passed, outside 0 the fleet, without coming to an anchor, going straight into the midst of the floating ice. As she passed them, she fired agun, and throw out the stars and stripes while a tall man on her bridge shouted thro h a speaking trumpet: “Come on, boys! A sad a mile wide, open water ahead 1” ‘ . , , Almost at the‘same moment. .the beard am answering gun from a high point 0 the island, where they had stationed a lookout, and the whaling fleet was all astiru. " Captains were hello ng raking out ashes to pimp steam, the sailors were running about, calling out to each other_ .“A lead! A lead!” and all was hustle and ex- citement. 4 , Meantime, on board the Panther, which had stolen a march on all the rest, the tall captain, who bore the stamp of Massachusetts in every lineament, called out to his helmsman: “Head her straight between those flees, Zeke. Don’t be skeered, man! The Panther will stand a dozen such nips as that’s likely to be!” . Very soon the steamer arriVed at the junc- tion of two floes, and the tall captain shouted up to the mast—head: “Have we ot room, Dave?” _ “Ay, ay, ather, plentg of room,” called down a. boyish voice. “ he’s opening wider every minute.” The captain run the bell to go ahead full 3 cod, and the Pant or charged in between the oes, the rotten ice parting with sullen groans on either side, the hummocks to pling over ' into the sea with dull splashes, the oes opening before her into the wide “ lead ” or water-way, which the captain’s son had spied from the mast-head. For ten minutes the thunder of the ice. as the blocks rained into the sea under the action of the screw; the scraping and groaning of the- floes, as they shot by the stout sides of the Ves; Bel, formed a perfect pandemonium of noise; . tanceis only I has low voice. orders, flremgn . and then came a throb and a dull tremulous motion, as the Panther rose and fell on the smooth oily swells of the water-way. Fast through the “lead” she s , as if afraid it might yet close on her till t e salt spray of the open sea dashed into the captain’s face, and he uttered a si h of relief as he said: . “Thank eaven, we’ve passed the. jam, a month ahead of time, this year.” Then he walked aft, and greeted the man at the wheel, a tall, grim~looking sea-dog from Nantucket, with a kindly nod: . “ Well, Zeke, we’re well out of that,'and now for the seals. Where’s that boy, Sandy Smeaton?” “ Here, sir,” said a qhueiet voice, and a thin, sharp-featured boy touc d his hat to the cap- tain. ’ He did not look over sixteen, and had the pale, pinched a. pearance of one who had suffered'privations, mm which he was slowly recovering. He wore the dress of a common sailor, and ad- dlressed the captain with the respect of his c ass. “Sandy,” said Captain Beadle, “the time’s coming, my boy, for you to make your mark, or-” he stopped. . “ Or prove that I have deceived you, sir,” re— turned the boy in a low tone. “ I now that if my information is incorrect, I shall deserve heavy punishment for bringing you into peril and theshi into a losing voyage. But I’m 'willi to ta 6 the risk if you are, sir.” He id not speak like a common sailor at all, this thin boy, whom Captain Beadle had icked up in the streets of San Francisco, drif there from, Heaven knows where; for Sandy would never tell; . r The captain watched him keenly as he spoke, and then returned: “ I wanted to see you, Smeaton, to ask you a few (ruestions about your story. Understand, I don t doubt your honesty; for I can read faces pretty well, by this time. But I want to be cer- tain before I head the ship in the direction in which we must penetrate, how you come to be so certain about the latitude and longitude of this island of which you have told me. Be- member I am an old sealer, and never heardof sealsso far north, for the animals must have open water." I “ There’s open water all round this island, ex- ycept in the depth of winter, sir " said Sandy, simpl'é. “ There are active vo canoes so near the. e water is kept warm. As for the lati- tude and longitude, they were taken by dead reckoning. from the nearest int in Siberia where the Russians have a etc on; and the dis- three hundred miles over ice-fields that are seldom broken u .” , _ _ “ But who took the apertures?” asked the chaptain?’ “ How am I to be certain he knew his 5 S j dy Smeaton hesitated, and his thin face fl painfully. » , _, at is what I cannot tell you, sir,” he said, I ” I—I promised not to. The man was—was an officer in Siberia. He knew ibusiness well, and he told me the story so en 1 know it by heart. See what he did, sir, . make ante I should never forget it.” He stripped up his shirt—sleeve as he spoke, .and showed Captain Beadle, tattooed on his arm ‘in blue letters.'the followin figures and letters: ’ “77:39 N. 128: E. SP.” The captain looked doubtfully at the arm. “ There is the latitude, lain enough,” he said; “but the Ion itude is t 9 most important poin . How was t lat obtained?” “ om theRussian surveys, sir. It is count— ed from St. Petersburg. That’s why he put the letters ‘8. P.’ there.” ' “And you say this man was a Russian ?" said the captain, slowly. “Then how did you come 'to meet him?” - Smeaton shook his head. ‘ “That is what I must not tell, sir. Iknow that the story is true, and if you push on you will find it the same. In the summer there are millions on millions. of fur-seals there, and there is one valley where they cannot escape if the en— trance is occupied. Besides that, on the south side of the island, frozen u in a lacier, there is ivory enough to load all this flee .” “ va I” echoed the captain. - “Nonsense, boy! but would elephants be doing up in the ice? They live in Africa and India.” “I can’t help that, sir,” returned Sandy, quietly. “ I know they are there, frozen u , and’cvery year brings them down nearer to t 9 ea. ‘ Captain Beadle looked at him dryly. , “ on’t tell us any more, Sand ,” he observed. “ You’ll be putting gold—mines t ere next. I’m willin to believe about the seals and the volca‘ noes, ecause I’ve been in Iceland; but I’m afraid I’ve made a fool of myself, coming up here on your story.” _, “If you have, sir,” returned Sandy, quietly, “ you can leave me all alone in the ice, as soon as you reach it, and turn back. I am ready to go on alone.”‘ The captain stared. “Go on alone. Boy, you’re crazy. You’d starve and freeze to death.” - “Not in the summer, sir,” returned the boy, steadily, “ and before the winter I’d be safe on the island.” “ But what would you do there?” The boy hesitated- “I cannot -'tell you, sir, till we get there. There may besome one livin there still. He was alive four years ago, hen I see him, or find his body, I can tell on all.” ‘ ‘:, The captain shrugged is shoulders; , “You’re a strange fellow. But never mind. We’re in for it now, and I’ll trust to the luck of Massachusetts to carry us out, safe and sound. Go forward.” The boy touched his hat and Went forward to his; duties, while Captain Beadle hailed the look- ou : :gyou, Dave, are the Whalers comingthrough ye Down from the mast-head came the cheery “in” °‘ “sari”? as . b . .‘ ‘ d y ay, ; oy re on u our, an the land’s wider than ever.” Then the captain 'looked asters, to see the columns of black smoke come chasing after him over the dark waters of the open sea, and he rubbed his hands and said to himself: “0an the middle of Mo. , and the ice gone out of t e straits already. e’re in luck.” On sped the Panther over the dark waters, that seemed to the eyes of the sailors like a. sea of ink, after the wastes of white ice, glarin in the sun. Low over the face of the ocean ow- ered the mists of the north, looming up in vast masses of clouds, soft in outline, that pe tually shifted, threatening thunder, but never ringing it, dropping in fine rain, or' creeping over the waves in fogs. ' . Hour after hour sped away in the same cloudy but ceaseless day, the sun‘shinin like a ball of red-hot metal through the arctic fogs, till the dark cliffs and towering glaciers of Iiazvtrence Island, draped in black mists, hove in 51g . On they went, hour after‘ hour, till their reckoning told them they were four full days from Nunnvick Island, and nearly clear of Behring’s Straits, where they ran into the whales at last. - , Not many of them, but enough to call out eve available boat in the fleet. The bellow of the arpoon-guns, as they darted their bomb— lances into the poor hunted whales, the pulling of the steam launches, towing the dead to the ships to be flensed* over, were enou h to make an old-fashioned Whaler like Zeke Fo ger of th the Panther sigh, and remark to Dave Beadle, captain’s son: " Ah, boys, things ain’t as they used to be in my time. I don’t like them new-fangled puflin’ steam—boats anyhow.” But the Panther stopped for‘ no whales, and held on her course, a fact that was noted by the captain of the fleet. . And as competition in whalin is keen, it struck every captain at the same time that the Saucy Yankee must be huntin some secret preserve, into which the ’ were etermined she should not 0 alone. 0, hardly stop ing to “flense”the1r whales, proper] , they hurried on,_ to. keep 119 smoke of t e Panther in sight, and ten hours later, ran into slush ice, or the north-west coast of Siberia, on the 20th May, 1879. They had encountered the van- ard of the Grand Army of the Northern Ice mg. . CHAPTER II. mrnn IN THE ICE. THE Panther retained her lead. over the other vessels when she came to the slush ice, and as the dark “ water-sky” at the north continued, ran boldly into the midst of masses of small » blocks, rapidly melting away under the action of the warm sea-water, As far as her people could see, there were no hummocks, and the were all small and cracked across, showmg that the were in the process of dissolution. But as t ely advanced, the mist closed down over them, til the helms- *“F’leused” is the term a ued to sk. . 0 whale of its sheet of blubber. pp "me25 a M I ,m. w , ~.a-......___.L~. . ‘i. The Ice 'jElephant. 3 man could no longer see the forward part of the ship, and before long they heard the faint mut- teringof distant thunder, so rare in arctic re- gions that its occurrence is always carefully noted in a ship’s log. Then a heavy, warm rain came down, and they were in the midst of a genuine thunder shower of a mild sort, running into a black cloud of rain ahead. _ Ca tain Beadle rubbed his hands and said to old eke Folger: . “ Couldn’t be better. This is the sort of thing to rot the ice. A fellow might go to the Pole if this weather would keep.” ' Zeke compressed his lips and scowled in the midst of his wrinkles. “ Wish the darned mist ’ud lift,” was all he answered. “ ’Tain’tl nateral. ” But the Panther ran on as fearlessly as ever; the lightning flashed right over her, so that blue flames ran. down the chain-conductors into the sea, and then the storm passed away to the south; the wind suddenly changed and they became aware that the temperature was rapidly falliu with it. . Hit erto they had been impelled by southern gales from the warm Ja 11 nt, which runs, three times the b th of our own Gulf Stream, and opens the to the Pole, every spring. They had been gomg at ten knots an hour through the slush ice. Now they were suddenl met by an icy breeze; the mist lifted and so ed away to the south in dark clouds of scud, and a broad glare of sunlight shone out with intolerable glor from vast, dazzling fields of ice. hidden from t em till the passage of the thunder-storm. To their amusement and consternation, they were surrounded by floes in which fleets of gi- gantic bergs were entangled, and which came sailin ,down insuch a way that it became a quest on of minutes only when they would be beset by the forces of the Ice King. Captain Beadle saw hisd er when it was too late to avert it. By one 0 those changes which are so common in the arctic regions in May, the thaw had turned intoa blac frost; the equatorial current had fallen back before the terrible northern blasts and inside of ten minutes the thermometer had dropped from fifty-eight above to within three degrees of the zero pomt with a fierce wind blowmg and the ice hardening like magic all round the steamer. In vain the unhappy Panther and her ven- turesome consorts tr to escape from their perilous position. T e sweep of the wind cleared away the mists to the south before they could get out of the slush ice, and. the blocks froze together into vast floes, fouled the screws of the steamers, and brought them all to a stand-still within half an hour. And as the ice closed in round them, they be- came aware of another danger that became more pressing. every minute. The force of the wind, besides chilling them to the bone, was acting on the huge fields and the mountainous bergs, so that the whole masswas‘ in constant and ominous motion. . First it began on the northern horizon where the yellowish glare of the “ ice-blink ” warned them that fields, perhaps hundreds of miles in extent, stretched away. . The edges of the great floes, eight and ten feet thick in many cases, went tilting up over each other, breaking off and lyingK piled up like packs of cards, forming the well nown ‘ hum- mocks," so common in arctic winter scenes. Then the huge bergs, offering more surface to the winds than the rest of the ice, came crash- down through the flees at a slow pace, pi ing up the loose'ice round their bases, and all moving down straight on the hampered fleet of Whalers. The intense glare of the sun, the prismatic hues of the great bergs, the stainless white of the floes, the black streaks of water at the edges where the “hammockmg 7’ Was going on, the wheelin flight of innumerable arctic birds, the imoke 0% the steamers, formed a strange pic- ure. The sullen groaning of the ice, the crash of the thundering bergs; the hoarse screams of the floes- as they split under the pressure of still lar er masses behind them; the cries of the sea- bir s; the shouts of the whaling crews, one to the other, and the shrill whistles of the escaping steam, made 11 a Babel of confusion. In the midst of it all, he captains of the Whalers, be- set about half a mile astern of the Panther, saw that the sealer was right in the path of a h fleet of bergs, that stretched away to the nort - ward horizon and seemed to have no ending. They watched .her lying there; heard her steam-whistle shrieking, as if appealing for the . sels. help they could notXi-ender; saw the barge crash: ing closer and closer; saw a number of black figures drop over her side and come running over the ice, abandoning the ship, and then saw the ice mountains close in on the unhappy ves- sel, till she was shut in from view. A moment later came a terrible commotion around themselves as the line of disturbance advanced and the floes began to “hummock up ” on the hulls of the ships. The nip had reached them. They had no time to watch the Panther, in terror for their own vessels. The first deep groans of the floes rose into a deep shrill whine and culminated in fearful howls as if the ice demons were exulting over them, like an Indian dancing round the torture fire. Then came the crashing of timbers, as the great ice islands came 'nding up against the sides of the ves- ome were lifted out of the water bodily, and keeled over on their beam-ends, when the flees would keep on grinding and piling up the hummocks round them, till the were hidden from sight. Others were crushe in like pa r, and sent down into black gulfs below, w ere the sea came hissing up to meet them, cold and pitiless as death. Then the men lost head and heart to ether in too many cases. Some mutinied, bro 9 o n the store-rooms to get at the whisky and ied drunk, afraid to look death soberly in the face. Others jumped overboard, like maniacs, at the moment the hummocking was at the worst. Others wept and tore their hair, prayed and cursed alternately, and went down with their vessels. A few of the cooler ones, whose ofiicers were brave men, seeing their utter helplessness in the ships, got out the light whale-boats, when- ever there was a lull in the commotion round them, and dragged them to the middle of the largest floss they could find. he groan and roar of the ice grew worse than ever, as the barge crashed on nearer to the remains of the fleet, and the men with the whale-boats fled in a panic from before them, knowing that wherevar they came the flees would break up. Every now and then a black gulf would open and divide their parties, swallowin up some and driving others away in fresh panic. It was the time and place to humble the pride of the most resolute,'to show the utter impo— tence of man before the mighty forces of na- ture. . On they went, scurr ing over the ice, the cruel wind nipping han s and faces unheeded, as they fled from then palling dangers of being crushed between the oes or drowned in that pitiless icy sea. r At last they came to the edge of the great field of floss, and saw the open water dashing against the edges of the ice, with the dark sky hanging over it, as the cold wind dropped to a calm, and the: equatorial current resumed its naturalvsway. -I:; took them six hours' work to get there; but it seemed like so many minutes . in the mad race for life. i . And when they looked round at last, what a terrible change had come over them since the . morning. Twenty-seven trim steamers, all ataunte, with nearly a thousand men for crews, in the mom- lng; new, sixty or seventy pale, frost-bitten men, with four or five whale-boats to hold them all, short provisions, and no inhabited country nearer than Alaska, a - good thousand miles away. : a Note ship to be seen. Crushed to pieces in the ice or sunk in the sea, the cor wretches could not find a trace of them. nd faraway, in the midst of the flees, like strain of ghosts, the white bergs swept along in solemn proces— sion up to the northern horizon. There let us leave the poor shivering wretches, survxvors of the whaling fleet, while we return to the neighborhood of the bergs whence a few hours before the panic-stricken sailors of the Panther had been running so desperately over the 11068. to escape the mountains of ice that im ended over their heads. 3 we go, let us watchfor any survivors. Alas! there is nothing to be seen be and a few broken spars on the ice. It woul seem as if every man had perished. CHAPTER III. TEE Panama’s urn. BUT, strange to say, the Panther, first to en- counter the “ nip,” and meeting it in the peril- ous Vicinity of the icebergs, was yet the only vessel that did not perish. Being within less than half a mile of the larg- ,that1this was rapidly est her , while the slush was yet soft, she had esca e the perils of the hummocks, only to find erself in the path of the ice mountains. _ Two huge bergs, each more than a s uare mile in surface, and towering five hundre feet in the air, came sailing down on her, as she lay, with her screw fouled, helpless before them. Behind these beth the crew could see others, in endless procession, like a chain of moving mountains. Their white tops sailed majestically and silently on through the blue sky, while the flees broke up around their bases and piled themselves up in clouds of spray and icicles. Above all was calm, below all commotion: but, above and below alike, were the living evi- dences of resistless power. Nearer and nearer crashed the two great bergs on the Panther, till they seemed to be hanging ri ht over her, and then the strain on the minds 0 her crew became to%vgreat to be withstood. ith a low, wailing cry of nnutterable despair, they fled to the side of the ship slipped overboard on the ice flees, and scattered in wild gopgusion, running like fugitives from a battle- 9 . The tall captain alone stood on his deck by the enginebell, silently watching the advanc- ing mountains of ice, his face pale as death, but his blue eyes never winking in their fearless stare. ' Beside him stood his son David, a tall, hand- some youngster, game to the backbone, while the thin face of Sandy Smeatou could be seen, a little in the rear, as the boy watched the terri- ble beauty of the bergs, with a strange ex- preesion. Old Zeke Folger, grim and wrinkled as ever, had his hands on the spokes of the wheel, and kept moving it slightly, as if trying to feel the water, as he watched the bergs coming closer. Now they were within fifty yards, and the floe in which the Panther was beset began to break 11 . Zeke Edger turned his wheel, and uttered a low W]. n ow, Cap!” The captain run the engine—bell, and the regular pulsation o the screw began again, as the steamer, like a live creature that sees its peril, backed away from the vicinity of the crashing ice. It was a desperate chance; but they had no other left them. To lie still was to be crushed passively: to struggle on was to die game. And the true Yankee always dies game. ‘ Around them the great cakes of ' ice were iling up; but the hissmg of the black sea could e hear , and every now and then great spaces of water opened, into which the steamer moved as fast as her entangled crew, could carry her. Slowly she crawled across the space at the foot of the berg. now coming Pei‘ilously close, anon: moving off again, wherever the water allomd her. . V ' _ The area. of disturbance in front of the fleet of bergs was widening fast as the moved along, and in between the Dog lines o the icemoun- tains they could see an avenue of open water, black as ink. ~ A look of mingled hope and fear came into the face of Cagain Beadle, as he saw that only one floe, less an a.quarter'of a mile across, divided the Panther from the dark avenue, and breaking up before the march of the bergs. - » g “ Head her there, Zeke,” he said, waving his hand and pointing, for his voice could not be heard amid the roar of the ice. ' Zeke nodded, and the captain rung the bell to go ahead full speed. . The engines paused and throbbed; the screw « churned the ice and water; the Panther moved slowly forward, but so did the bergs she was trying to scrape past. At last, when less than fifty yards divided them from the open water, came a snap above their heads and a roar like thunder, as one of the bergssplit in half before ' their eyes, and turned over into the sea, raising a wave that came tearing through the ice, and swept the Panther from stem to stem, carr ing great blocks of ice over her decks, and sin 'ng he foremast like a pipe-stem. Captain Beadle, struck b a mass Weighing man tone, was swept into e black water un- der the berg—foot and disappeared forever. His son, more fortunate, was carried by the wave up against the wheel, to which old Zeke Folger clung like grim death, and left senseless there, with all the breath knocked out of his body for the time. Only Sandy Smeaton, who had been watch- the turmoil with that inscrutable expression w ‘ch was a part of the mystery that surround- 4 The Ice Elephant. ed him, saw the turnin berg in time, and es— ca to the shelter of t e mainmast. en the wave subsided, which it did in a few moments under the resistance of the ice- fields, the Panther, still holding her course with throbbing engines, was in the avenue of 0 en water between the fleets of bergs, and eke Folger, never losing his presence of mind, turned her head into the dark water-way, and shouted to Sandy Smeaton: “ Ring the the bell to half speed, 9 darned fool! Was ye never in the ice afore ’ Sandy Smeaton nodded and went to the bell which he rung as directed. There was the old sailor at the wheel; the insensible boy lay at his feet; and no other living soul was on the Pan- ther but Sandy Smeaton and the unknown hero of the engine-room below, who had stuck to his post in the darkness when old sailors had fled in terror. The Panther was out of one dan er, it was true: but by no means out of all. e'fore her stretched a winding canal of black water, in- terspersed with ice-islands and surrounded _by mountains that were every minute turning over and sending huge waves along, breaking up the flees in the vicinity. The attraction of these vast masses for each other threatened to close the lead at any mo- ment, and it was clear that if the vessel were once caught between two icebergs, she must be ground to powder and whelmed n the sea. Still they ran on. Old Zeke Folger scanned the prospect ahead as coolly from the midst of the crow’s feet round his gray eyes, as if he were steering into Nantucket Roads with a full shi after a successful cruise. nd all the while young David Beadle, the ca tain's son, lay senseless at the feet of the old as lor; for there was no time to attend to him; till Sandy Smeaton raised him up and carried him to the foot of the mainmast, where he lis- tened attentively, his ear against the boy’s chest. Presently he said: , “He won’t die, Mr. Folger. I hear his heart beatin .” Old Zeke compressed his lips. “ Guess so, boy. No time to tend to him now. Go below and“ tell Chin Lee to fire up well. We’ll want all the steam we can raise to get out of this scrape.” Sandy recognized in old Zeke a man who was able to take care of a ship, and answered, sailor— fashion: “Ay, ay, sir.” . Then he dived down the engine hatch, and geedily found himself in a dark hole, where e thermometer stood at ninet -flve, and a .dim swinging lamp cast a mist ight through clouds of steam on heaps of blue coal. As’ he came down the ladder, some one oEened the furnace door, and a bright, red lare a ct out, in the midst of which stood a y, strip to the waist whose yellow skin, broad, flat ace, twinkling black eyes and coiled pig- tail lproclaimed him a. Mongolian, pure and sin: 9, who was raking the fire. “giro up Chin Lee," cried Sandy. “ How many poun s of steam on?” Chin Lee made no answer till he had shoveled on a couple of bushels of coal, when he lanced at the steam gau e and replied, in h s shrill Chinese tones, wit a broad grin on his face: “ y catches fifty-siproundee, Sandy. My fiahup muchee. 1(in ow be’en ices? Makes noisee allee samee lg u down heab. My glaahusl My stickee y do bullgine allee times” Sandy examined the steam gauge and saw that the Shins. boy had told the truth. So far from lacking steam, a dan rous pressure was on, and he hastil opened t a valve and let the steam oil to a ea or point, Chin Lee remonstrat- in . g‘You tellee me flah upee, you lettee oflee steamee. Why faw, why fawl You allee names big foolee.” Sandy explained to him that firing up and a dangerous pressure were two diflerent things, and told him: “ You’re a good boy, Chin Lee, but you’re not an on near, you know.” “my a so samee bulgineah,” hastily inter- ru Chin Lee. “My flah uppee allee samee bu gineah, allee times. You no bulgineah. You lettee valvee lonee. My bustee you on snootee.” Sandy laughed. . “No you won’t. Don’t get hot, Chin Lee. This is no time for hting. The men have all run away, Captain le 5 killed, and there is no one left aboard the poor old Panther but Mr. Folger, Dave, you and me.” C in Lee’s countenance changed from anger ’30 concern at once, as he exclaimed: _ “ Oh, my glashusl Allee gone! Lun away allee samee big cowdeel Whatee we dose, Sand l” » “ eaven knows,” returned the other he in a tone of solemnity; “ we can only do our uty by the shi , and trust to God. Keep up your fire, Chin Iice, but don’t let the steam get over forty pounds, and keep the boiler fulll’ Then he went back on deck, leaving Chin Lee staring at the fire in blank amazement. When he returned, Dave had come to his senses and was speaking to old Zeke, who stood by the wheel, as grim and cool as ever, while the steamer ran on at half speed through a dark avenue that was growing broader every moment. Sandy Smeatcn’s first instinctive glance was to the north, and he uttered a low Sigh of con- tent as he saw there, in the midst of the yellow ice-blink a dark spot, low on the horizon, that showed the presence of a water-hole, if not of the edge of open sea itself. “ Where is my father, Zeke?” r Dave was asking the grim steersman, and andy saw the old sailor’s face twisting into all sorts of ex- pressions, as he tried to answer but could not. Then the stran e lad who had been picked up on the streets of an Francisco came up to the other boy, about his own age, and said to him gravely: “ Mr. David, your father died like a sailor, in command of his ship, sticking to her to the last. He lies buried in the same grave with many another brave man; but his spirit is beside us now. Cheer up and try to be worthy of him, for he was a noble man, God bless him i” His eyes were full of tears as he spoke, and old Zeke Folger suddenly spluttered out, with a hysterical sob: ' ‘ Confound it! I can’t stand it. he 5. It’s a shame! The best man as ever I sail under, to git kerried oil', jest as we was a-gettin’ out of the jaml It‘s too bad, it is! .You Sandy, stop that blubberin’, or you’ll make old Zeke furgit himself and run the shi into the ice.” And then he broke own utterly and sobbed like a child, the salt tears running down among the wrinkles beside the grim closed mouth, while the old sailor held onto the wheel as firm- It as ever, and looked out through his tears at e we. The bad no time to indulge grief on board the anther that day, an perhaps it was just as well they did not. The perils that surrounded them were too imminent; their own prospects of death too near; to leave time for mourning the death of others. All alone in the Arctic Ocean, with the giant bergs sailing majestically by, the only avenue of escape threatening to close on them if they dallied, the four survivors of the Panther had enough work to do to keep them from think- in of anything but the all—absorbing present. hree boys and an old man to manage a large steamer beset in the ice, with no land near them. The odds against their lives were terri- ble, and they all knew it. But Sandy Smeaton seemed to have the most courage of any of them; for, at this moment, he pointed down the long dark avenue between the bergs, and cried out in cheering tones: “ We shall get out yet, alive. See, the water- sky is rising fast.” CHAPTER IV. THE WATER-SKY. IT was true. In the midst of the broad lare of the ice—blink, they could see the dark 0 end, that had been no bi ger than a man’s hand, ris- ing and spreading net to right and left, while the water-way was widening every moment to the open sea, and the coldness of the wind was moderating to a calm. The vast fleet of icebergs went sailing by as serenely as ever but the could see that it was taking a great nd to he east, while all the northwest was dark and open. How long they had been beset in the ice they did not yet know, for no one had been down into the cabin to look at the chronometers, but they felt that it must have been many hours, for the were faint and hungry, though they had j risen from breakfast when the thunder germ passed by and left them in sight of the rgs. For the time the danger was over, and Zeke Fol r said to Sandy: » “ in the bell, full speed, and take the wheel, bog; e’re out of it at last.” ndy Smeaton obeyed, and the old sailor went down into the ea in, beckoning David to follow him. The Panther held on her course for several hours more, the boy standing at the helm all. alone, till the dark clouds of the water—sky loomed overhead, and she ran off to the west, skirting the edge of the ice leaving the ghostly procession of hergs behind her at last. Sandy did not seem to be frightened at his unusua position, for he ran on as cooll as if the vessel were on her ordinary course; at he kept talking to himself, after a habit he had when alone, and his murmured words ran thus: I “We shall see it at last. I shall see him. Alive ,or dead, he will be there, and the secret will be revealed. Who would have thou ht," when they turned me out to die, to hide t eir crime, that the day would come when I should be returnin to the place where I was born, to find my fat er’ murderer. The ice has taken strong men, but I am left alive, and by the blessing of Heaven, if I cannot make the fortune of the only man that ever showed kindness to me, I can at least enrich his son and this faith- ful old sailor.” The Panther ran on, swiftly as ever, over the. dark waters, while to the south stretched away the great ice-fields, and all the rest was open sea. The cold wind had ceased, and the dark fog hung motionless, while the sun above shone down so warmly that the boy had to throw off his heavy coat as he stood at the wheel.- Presentl he saw the silvery spouts of innu- merable w ales, and the huge creatures came wallowing in the waves round the vessel, as if wondering how she came in that lonely sea. The round, innocent heads of the seals, with their soft dark eyes, rose u in thousands, and families of them swam along side the Panther, staring at her with the ardent curiosity of their kind. Out on the ice were great flocks of birds, hoverin by the edge 'and divin into the sea. after fis , while more than one w ite bear sat, licking his cho and hungril staring at the sgals, too far 0 to give him a ope of catching- t em. Nothing human seemed to have passed that way before, but the rich profusion of animal life was amazing. Just as Sandy wasbe nnin to feel weary, and noddin came up wit David, and said kindly to the boy: “Go down to the cabin and git e suthin’ to eat, Sandy. There a’n’t no fo’k as Is and cabin no more, aboard this barky now. We’re all ekal, and there’s lots of state-rooms. When ye’ve ate we’ll hold a council of war, as the sojers calis it. ” “ And why not now!” asked Sandy. “Here’s the captain’s son, and he owns the vessel. We’re bound to obey him to the death —-at least I am out of common gratitude to his Bil-or father. What’s the question before us, . David?” “Don’t call me ‘Mr.’ any more, Sandy,” the other boy returned, pleadingly. “We’re all equal now. Let it be Sandy and Dave here after. It seems absurd to have as three boys ‘misteri ’ each other, when Zeke’s the only one of us hat knows how to run the shi .” Sandy Smeaton looked at the old w or with a peculiar expression, as he said: “ Perhaps so, Mr. David—I ask pardon—Dave, I mean—but perhaps even Zeke does not know how to navigate.” The old Nantucketer shook his head. “Ye’re right there, boy. I kin handle any ship, till it comes to squintin’ at the sun and stars through a sextant, and then it’s all so much Greek toime. And that’s why I say, the quicker we git somewhere as we kin take bearin’s frum, the safer we’ll be. Who knows where we are nowll Not one of us.” “Pardon me,” returned Sandy, quietly. “Let me find the sextant and chronometers, End 131 work the ship’s place for you in half an our. Dave uttered a cry of joy. “ What? Can ygn navigate? And you have been doing dutgn fore the mast. Oh, why did not my fa her ow that?” “It was not necessary that he should. I shiplped as a boy, and was glad to get the work to 0 Had your father needed me asanavi— gator, he would have said so. Now I am needed, there is plenty of time to use my services. But what do you wish to decide?” “Whether we shall turn back or not?” said David, doubtfully. “I know in father had some idea of finding a new g place up here; but what can we do, we three alone to ‘ load a ship even if we find the seals, Sondyi’ “Your father never told you, then, w y be came here?” asked Sandy. . , 5 5 Never 71 “ Then I will. He came here on thestory over the w eel od Zeke Folger , 731'? (95:56. 5 $73579 nW!W The Ice Elephant. 5 which I told him. Not three hundred miles to the northwest of where we are now lies the sealing-ground of which I told him, and there is a fortune there for all of us; so that you need never 0 to sea ain, if you take what you find. f on turn ack now, we can take the ship to Sitka and get a new crew; but in that case the summer will be half over by the time we get back, and ten years may pass before Vsuch a favorable season comes again. If we go on now, we shall reach Seal Island in thirty hours, and before winter have our ship loaded.” “Ay, a ,” rumbled old Zeke; “its well to say have er oaded; but how'll we git out in the spfinwaemay git froze up, so’s we’ll never '1: k.” “I on’t expect to get back this way,” was the quiet reply. “ We shall have to go round the world an come out on the Atlantic Ocean, along the coasts of Siberia.” “ Sibery!” echoed Zeke, aghast. “ Geehosha- fphat, man, no one ever goes there l” “Unless he can’t help himself, I grant you. But there are plenty of people live there for all that, and so you’l say before you’re a year older. How would you like to sail into Boston harbor with a full cargo of sealakins and ‘ivor i" “ cal-skins and iv’ 'lncredulously. “Sho, y, ye’re dreamin’. Ye mout as wel say ostrich feathers and coal-tar, or palm-oil and buflier robes. Where’s the iv’ry Sandy Smeaton inted to the northwest. “There,” was al he said. “Keep her dead away on this course, and I’ll show it to you in thirty hours.” . Then he went down-stairs, and David stared at Zeke Folger in silence for some moments, till at last he broke out: "' I believe him, Zeke, I believe him. My father knew whom to trust, and he’d not have come up here unless he had known that Sand ’5 story was true. Come; there’s poor Chin e down—stairs alone in the engine-room. What should we ave done without that poor boy? When Tom Green ran away like a coward, that boy stuck to his post, and he’s been running the engine ever since. Keep on her course, while I go down to see him.” The old man nodded. “ I reckon ye’ll find him aslee . It’s hot down thar, and he‘s all alone. I e’ll hev to set watches as it is, or we’ll all be goin’ to sleep, now there’s only four on us.” Dave Went below to the engine-room, and “found, as Zeke had predicted, that Chin Lee was fast asleep. He had taken his seat in a big arm-chair, black with coal-dust, and lay back in it, snor- ing loudly, with his hand on the lever of the throttle valve. As an experiment to try how sound he was asleep, Dave spoke to him, but got no answer; touched him, and Chin Lee slept as calmly as ever. But the moment he struck the gong, though the stroke was light, the boy started up like a flash and turned on a full head of steam, then rubbed his eyes and began talking to himself in Chinese, as he went to open the furnace door and fire up again. When he saw David, he called out. “ Hyi! My lashus, Missee Davee, how you skay me! on oomee downee allee samee spookee. What you wantee?” “ Nothing, Chin Lee, but to see if you were awake. Are you hungry .2” “My bungleel” The Chinese boy cackled at the idea. “You tinkee my bunglee long when my catchee glub allee timee in stoo d’s pantiy.‘ My glashus, no! You go tend you biz, Missee . Davee. Chin Lee allee samee bulgineah. My no wantee eatee, dlinkee, slee e, outside. My likee down heah allee timee. o, no; you gitee outee. Leavee Chin Lee lone.” And he pushed David out of the engine room, laughing. ?” echoed the old man, \ to come from?” , CHAPTER V. rim UNKNOWN ISLAND. ALL that day and night—which was no night in that latitude—the Panther 1pressed on, With throbbing engines, over a dar sea, the clouds of the water-sky han ng ovar her. Chin Lee slept mly in the engine room, wakening only at the signal of the bell, while the three other survivors of the ship’s company took turns at the helm. At last, Sandy Smeaton and Zeke Fol , dozing on settees in the cabin, were waked y a cheery crfiefrom the boy David, coming down through t skylight: . “Land, ho I" The news caused them to rush up on deck, when they beheld before them, looming up among the arctic mists, a mass of mountain peaks, the sides clothed in glaciers that jutted out into the sea, the whole crowned by a lofty volcanic cone, from which issued flashes of light, reflected against a black cloud of smoke that hung over the summit. They had come on it suddenly out of the fogs, and it towered up more than ve thousand feet in the air, less than two miles 01!. Whether it were only an island or a new con- tinent they could not at first tell; for it stretched away to either side, till lost in the mists; but as soon as Soggy Smeaton set eyes on it, he cried: “ It is S Island, boys; and the harbor lies yonder, behind that cloud.” He pointed to a dark wall of rock, against which the white line of a h e lacier ended abruptly, where the mists hid er view. From that moment old Zeke Folger ceased to scowl in doubt, and a look of wonder took pos- session of his wrinkles. He said nothing; but his manner to the mysterious be who had guided them so far became respect ul at once, and he actually touched his hat to Sand Smea- ton, when the latter spoke to him. y com- mon consent, both he and Dave gave up the command to Sandy, who went to the kni ht- heads to con the vessel, and issued his 0 ers by signs to Zeke, who had taken the wheel. As the Panther advanced toward the black cloud, it faded away before her, under the in- fluence of the sun, and disclosed a bare, rocky coast, furrowed with ravines, down each of which thrust forth a great white glacier. Mile after mile they steamed on past this iron- bound coast, till it took a sudden swee inward, disclosing a deep flord, or narrow a , bor- dered b black recipices, around whic thou- sands 0 sea-bir s were screaming and hovering, showing it to be a great nesting-place, while the black heads of sea 5 dotted the smooth waters below in shoals innumerable. Sandy Smeaton waved his hand, and the Panther ran into the fiord under a full head of steam, when she slackened speed and passed up for a ood two miles of still, and-locked water. At ast they saw the flord come to an abrupt ending in a rocky slope, down which tumbled a white cascade, and beyond which opened a smiling valley surrounded by dark cliffs clothed with pines an heaths to the summit, wherever a. handful of earth could be found. After the awful desolation of naked rock and white glacier, the aspect of this green valley seemed to them like a glimpse of Paradise, and Dave enthusiastically cried: . “Heavens! how beautiful! I could live here forever. Oh, look at the seals l” Sandy Smeaton smiled as he came back from the kn' ht-heads, and observed: “I to d on I would show you the seals. That valley is t eir breedin station, and if we do not fire any guns we can oad the ship With furs, and they will never miss what we take. Stop the engine, Dave. We needn’t anchor. I can moor her where nothing will ever hurt her.” Dave struck the gong to stop, and the Panther slowly glided along under t e impetus of her ast s ed, till she rested motionless within fifty Feet 0 a natural dock, where two sturd ine trees grew at either end, as if they ha en lanted on purpose to serve as mooring-posts. hort—handed as they were, it required very delicate managementto bring the shi to this dock without injury; but by dint o careful steering, backing, gomg ahead, and stopping again, the Panther at last rested beside it, an Sandy and Dave had jumped ashore and bent the head and stern hues round the two trees, when the signal was given to blow off steam, and the roar of the at ipe echoed down the fiord, from clifi to (3 iff, Ii 9 thunder. “Weal, by gosh I” ejaculated old Zeke, as he left the wheel and stepped over the side on a platform of rock, that rose just as high as the anther’s rail. ‘Little did we think what a place was hid away up here b the Pole. By gum! it’s jist too swee for any hing!” David looked up and down the valley and flora, and his eyes filled with tears, as he mur- mured to his friend: _ “0h, Sandy it’s beautiful. If he had only lived to see it! ’ _ Sandy Smeaton patted him softly on the shoulder. . “ Perha 5 he sees it now. I don’t behave that the body 3 all there is of us. Come let us not repine at the past. You have a. mother left. I have neither father or mother. Let us both work for your mother, to place her out of the reach of want. I tell you there is enough wealth on this island to make us millionaires. All we have to do is to put it into the vessel, and carry it away. Isn’t it about time we let poor Chin Lee out of the engine room? Let’s go down and see to him.” They were saved the trouble of the joumey, for at that moment Chin Lee made hh a — pearance at the main hatch, his shaven pol covered by a’sealskin cap, his body wrapped in a long fur coat of Chinese sha , while the great wads of silk on his feet wit their felt soles, would have been enough to defy the coldest winter days. . Nevertheless, Chin Lee was shivering as he came up out of the sweltering engine room, though the thermometerin the flord stood at sevent ~two, and he ejaculated as he looked round in wonder: ~ “ yil Coldee! My no likes Melican countlyl Wah!’ Then he stared at the valley, which went Winding up for several miles into the moun- tains. and cried out: , “ Kyi! My footy! Allee Melican do ee swimmee like fishee. Lookee, lookee! ah! bah! Comee setee doggeel” They looked in the direction in which he was pointing, and saw a huge white animal come rolling from side to side down the glen; which they could see was occupied in the center by a small stream, which ran over atable of bare rock about half a mile wide, bordered b vivid green, and the purple heather of the su arctic groves. All over the flat table-land lay herds of seals, with their cubs beside them, and the coming of the white animal produced a great commotion among them. It was a polar hear of the largest size, and the old bull seals raised a warning roar to the herds, and went wallopin and writhing down to the water in desperate aste. The bear, on the other hand, came forward in a leisurely manner, as if sure of his rey, lick- ing his chops, so that our heroes rea ized that sonlie plot was on foot for the destruction of the sea 5. What it was they were informed, a moment later, by the cry of Chin Lee, who had run to the outside of t e Panther, and screamed out: “Lookee! Lookee! Mo’ bah, mo’ bah! Catches Melican doggee allee timee! Kyi! Lookeel” Sure‘ enough, there was a whole family of white bears in the water, come from no one knew where, except that they were rising from a dive, and they had taken their places just under the waterfall, over which the seals came rushing, while the artful hunters had no difficulty in selecting each one his prey, seizing it in his Jaws and carrying it up the sloping ledge of rock by the waterfall, to devour in peace. As for the first bear, that had performed the part of driver so successfully, as soon as he saw his comrades at their men , he uttered a loud 1‘ Wolf,” and set ofl.’ at a lumbering gallop just in tune to catch one of the last bull seals that had lingered in the rear. ‘ A moment later and the valley was empt of seals, cubs and all having fled to the dbep waters of the fiord; and five huge bears were teaan away at the bodies of their victims and growling to each other over their re st. Old Zeke F0 er watched them wig: a. look of anxiety on his ace, and obserVod: “ Te 1 ye What, boys, I don’t like that. Them pesky brutes is dangerous, and they’ll skeer every seal out of the place. There’s only four of us, and Chin Lee ain’t no 00d if them brutes want to come aboard an a. bit of human for a change arter so much meat.” “There’s on] one thing to do” replied the quiet tones of ndy Smeaton. ‘Those bears have not been here long, or the seals would have left the valley. We ve got to kill every mother’s son of them, or et killed ourselves.” “Easy enou h to say ki ’em,” retorted Zeke, impatiently; ‘ but them brutes is as tough as InJy-rubber. Who’ll undertake (okill’em? I’m sure I won’t.” “I will,” re lied Sandy, cool] . There’s a Winchester 11' e and a breech-10a ing shot—gun in the cabin, and I’ll engage to finish the whole five alone if you’ll go up to the mast-head and look on.” ' “Done,” cried Zeke, heartily. “Bu’st my skin, if you kin kill five bears, we’ll ’lect you cappen 0’ this here craft.” CHAPTER VI. was BATTLE or m suns. . TEE prospect of the battle before our heroes was by no means reassuring. The polar bear is the : «za- and most M' as w -- - u... . 6 The Ice Elephant. beast on the face of the earth. One of them could kill two lions, and a tiger would have no more chance with it than a kitten. A young elephant weighs no more, and the bears frequent]?!7 stand six feet at the shoulder on all fours, w ile they rise up on their hind legs high enough to look over a camel’s back. A full—grown polar bear measures four feet round each arm at the shoulder, and his whole body is as lithe as that of a snake. With one blow of his tremendous paw, armed with black claws, curved like sickles and hard as iron, he can tear all the flesh from the side of a. four- thousand-pound walrus, or crush in skulls which would glance a bullet. And there were five of these fearful brutes, ' licking their bloody jaws and crunching the bones of the seals not a hundred yards away from the Panther, into which there was nothing to prevent their walking whenever they took a fume . Toykill them, there were only three boys and an old man, with two guns; yet Sandy Smeaton marched off to the cabin as coolly as if he were preparing for a rabbit hunt. “ Can you shoot, Dave?” he asked. “ To be sure. That’s ma gun,” returned Dave, pointing to a cheap emington breech— loader that hung beside the Winchester. shot many a quail with it.” “ Have you any bullets'to fit it?” “ No. But I’ve plenty of slugs, and a bag of tenpenny nails. ” “ That’ll have to do. Take lots of cartridges, and go up to the mainvtopgallant cross-trees. The bears can get into the top easy enough, but they can’t shin up aslushed mast or a tarred m 9. I’ll go into the top and pop er them with bu lets to coax them into a fig t. Then you settle them, as soon as a head gets close enough for you to hit it with the wiping rod.” Dave nodded. ' ” I see. Good scheme. Do you think they’ll try to climb?" Sandy smiled. “ You’d better believe they will. We shall see in a few minutes.” \ “ But what shall we do with Zeke and Chin Lee? They’ve no guns.” “Let Zeke take a. seal club or a whale lance. He’ll get a chance, never fear. As for Chin Lee, if he wants to see the fun he can stay up in the cross—trees. If he doesn’t, he can lock himself up in the engine room.” ‘ They came out on deck, and found Zeke look- ing at the bears with grim uneasiness, though the huge creatures were peaceable enough at resent. But Zeke had seen them before, and gnaw of what they were capable when fairly aroused. He had seen one climb into a whale‘ boat rowing as hard as eight sailors could pull it, kill three men in an instant and drive the rest into the aws of the sharks. He had seen another, ridd ed by fifty bullets, char e into a ship’s company on an ice floe, and fal dead on a heap of human bodies. No wonder Zeke was afraid of polar bears. It was no shame to his manhood. When he heard Sandy’s plan, however, he nodded approv- ingly, saying: ‘ t’s the only chance, boys. We’ve got to kill them, or they’ll scatter the seals and finish us off for a change. I’ll take a lance and a seal club too.” He went forward and brought out his whal- ing-lance with its blade a foot long; wherewith he shaved himself regularly and ung a seal club to his belt—a short heavy hatchet. ground, sharp as a razor, with a loop to the helve to tie round the wrist of the striker. He fixed the lance-blade to its shaft, took the coils of the line in his hand, and went up the mizzen rig 'n to the cross-trees, where he took his seat wi h is legs dangling, as cool on his left perch as if he were in an arm—chair in a or. The foremast of the Panther having been car— ried away at the time of Captain Beadle’s death, only the main and mizzen remained, she being full ship rigged, and the stays that went tothe foot of the oretopmast were hanging in disorder, for there were not enough hands to cut awa all the wreck. Chin e looked at the bears, heard the choice offered him to go aloft or below, and philoso- phically remarked: “ Ch na boy no likes bah, no likee ooldee. My habee muchee fun, down stah. My scootee, vamosee lanchee.” , His English was arude imitation of the low Californian'slang which was all he had ever . d so we must excuse poor Chin Lee if he donot talk the best of rammar. , H I’ve the main hatch, barricaded it fast and repaired to his engine-room, grumbling all the way: “ Melican boy allee samee big foolee. Why no lettee bah loneel My no sebbee dat biz. Shootee. shootee, allee times: Mebbee bah eatee Melican boy, some day. Kyil” In the mean time Sandy Smeaton and Dave climbed up the rrain rigging, and took their seats on the two horns of the cross-trees, having agreed that they could protect Zeke and each other better from that position. When they arrived there, Sandy, cool as ever, made Dave nail up, to the side of the top-gal- lant mast, his bag of slugs and the other of nails, where they would be out of the way, but easil accessible. ' “ o fooling round and dropping bags,” he observed to Dave. Each boy had a seal club in a leathem sheath at his belt, and Sandy had twelvo shots in his rifle. but, as he said: “There’s not enough powder or lead in a forty caliber cartridge to kill a polar bear, un- less you can hit him in the brain or heart. However, we can coax them up. Are you ready?” Dave’s voice shook a little, and he was rather pale as he answered: “ Ye-es. Shall I fire first?” “ No use. Your gun won’t carry slugs over a hundred yards, and they won’t feel a charge hit them. I’ll rouse ’em.’ Coolly and quietly he leveled his rifle OVer the other horn of the cross-trees, taking a turn of the hanging main top—gallant stay round himself and his friend, to prevent their falling off in the excitement of contest. Then, when he was quite ready, and not a moment before, he opened fire on the bears, and sent five bullets at them in as many seconds, each one striking fair on one of the huge white bodies. A hungler could hardly have missed so large and easy a a mark, and Sandy was no hun ler. He shot coolly and methodically, and sent each shot asnear the heart of his mark as he could judge, then looked through the smoke, and cried out: “ Steady! Here they come.” Sure enou b, they were coming, the great lumbering w ite beasts, red spots on their creamy fur, their black muzzles omitting sav- age snorts and growls, their snow teeth shin- ing in the sun, all five transforms from sleepy looking lumps of fur to raging demons, intent on revenge. Dave shook all over with nervous tremors, and let off his gun in his excitement, the charge, eliciting from old Zeke the stern shout: “What in thunder ye doin’, boy? D’ye want to shoot me? Keep cooll Ain’t ve shamed? S’po’se yer father seen ye? Shol Keep cool, I say ' The words steadied Dave amazin ly; but Sandy did not scold. He only sai , softly “Don’t get excited. They can’t come here." Then they looked down, and saw all five bears come ramping aboard the ship, making a tre- mendous noise, quite enough to shake any man’s nerve, running about the deck, snuffing and growling, biting at ropes clawing at the cook’s galley, and acting for a the world as if they thought the vessel had done them the injury. Even Dave, who was etting over his first nerv- ousness could not be p a smile at the aimless fury of these dumb brutes as they ran about, an he said to Sandy, in a whisper: “ Shall I fire?” “ Yes," returned Sandy, in a clear, loud tone, and instantly the bears looked up. “ Bang,” went Dave‘s other barrel aimed at one of the upturned muzzles, and down went the bear, roaring, howling, snuflln ,pawing at its face, rolling all over the deck, while the other four, in a terrible chorus of growls, came climbing u the ratlines of the main rigging, as if they ad all been trained on a man~of— war. “Load up a min, Dave,” cried Sandy sharpl . “You’ve b inded one already. Give the others the same dose, when I tell you. I’m good for the first.” Well was it then for Dave Beadle that he had a breech-loader, and knew how to use it. He had his cartridges all ready, clapped them in, and was ready before the bears had reached the cat—bargings under the mainto . But ow those brutes did c imbl They ran up the ratlines like men, can ht hold of the e go of the maintop with their uge claws, and swung themselves up as easily as cats. One of them, to save time, tried to squeeze throu h the “lubber’s hole” next to the mast, and s uck fast; but the other three arrived in I = to toether while Sandy Smeatou was re- loading. Then they seemed puzzled. The rat- lines in the topmast rigging of the Panther were absent, and the crew had been used to o u by shinning the ropes, assisted by small knobs 0 ser- vice stufi’, wound round the stays for foot-rests, at intervals. The bears hardly seemed to know what next to do to get up, when Sand Smeaton pointed his rifle down and o ned re at less than thirty‘feet distance, aiming at the eyes of the beasts. ' Bullet after bullet struck and glanced off their flat skulls, but only seemed to excite them to a wilder pitch of fury. First one reared up against the mast, tried to climb it by hugging, and went slipping down. Then anot or tried the same game, while the brute that was stuck in the lubber’s hole kept howling, snarling, and biting at the mast in his . desperation not knowing how to get out. Both Sandy and have perceived that the bears could not quite reach them, though once a huge paw, as big as a flour barrel, nearly touched the lower side of the crossvtrees. Sandy took his best aim, just as this hap- pened and sent a forty-caliber bullet'into the eye of the bear, within five feet. That time he struck the brain at last, and Bruin collapsed as if struck b lightning, fall- inglikea 10 into the top an thence coming with a dull op down on the hard deck. ‘ “Now, Dave, blind them,” the boy cried. ex- ultingly. and with the word Dave let fly both barrels at the head of the nearest bear. He had forgotten to put in nails or slugs in his excitement, but it made no difference at that short range. The fine shot blinded the huge brute, and it let 0 its hold with a wild bowl of dismay, turn led over the edge of the top, and came down by the dead bear with a tremendous flop. Then it lay still a moment, as if stunned, and anon be n to roll about the deck, clawing its muzzle, owling and roaring, like its companion in miser . “Wel done, Dave,” cried Sandy cheerfully. “Now for the last. Come up, you brute.” It was not necessary to taunt the bear, for it- was already huggin the greasy mast and al— most up to the cross- recs. Before Sandy could get a good aim, one black claw had booked itself over the edge of the crossvtree, and the great beast drew itself up with a swing, just as Dave, with a shriek of terror that he could not re— strain, dropped his gun, seized hold of the top- allant rigging, and climbed away for dear fife He would have been too late, however, but for Sandy Smeaton. Once the bear got its claw on the horn of the cross-tree, it swung up easily enough' but on the other side of the mast from the dauntless Sandy. Intent onl on the climbing form of Dave Beadle, the uge brute gathered itself on the cross-trees and reached up to claw the bog down when Sandy Elaced the muule of his ti o ri ht on the bear’s ody over the heart, and fired 8 013 after shot, till his magazine was empty, in less than five seconds of delirious work. That settled even the tough polar bear. It hugged the re s savagely, shaking and clawin , not seeing w ence came the blows, then fel back from the cross-trees, stone dead, and, strik- in the main rigging below, bounced off like a ba 1 into the water y the ship’s side. “Well done, by gum!” roared a stentorian voice from the mizzen top