TRUTH STRANGER THAN'FICTloN! STORIES FOUNDED 0N FACT!

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$2.50 a year. Entered at the Post mm; at New York, N. Y., as Second Class Mall Matter. Copyrighted in 1882 by BEADLE AND ADAMS. August 9, 1882.

1 PUBLISHED WEEKLY'BY BEADLE AND ADAMS P I
V01.  Nsuin'figr. No. 98 WILLIAM STREET, NEW YORK. ' Fiverggx’lts. NO. 35.

THE 1.0“ BOY WHALERS: or,|N THE SHADOW OF THE NORTH PDLE.

 

 

 

 

A Tale of Adventure and Peril in the Prigid World.

 

BY T. C. HARBAUGH,

AUTHOR on “THE SNOW-TRAIL,” “ THE BOY EXILES 0F SIBERIA,” ETC., 11:10., me.

 

 

 

 

 

“ an Gob!” FELL FROM NED’B 1.195 As HE REELED AWAY.

 

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« crow’s-neet one day, an

.’ l,
‘ lo

u The Lost Boy ‘Whalers.

"fig—-

 

The Last Boy Whalers;
n the "Shadow. .e' the‘ ' Npeh“ Pole.

A Tale of Ldventuu and leril 'in_ti.e,

g Frigld ".Vorld . /

BY T. C. HAREALGH, ,

nurses or “can! em. yrs ‘11.,” "nor anus,”
~ “ snow-anon won, - arc, arc.

CHAPTER I.
THE Nkmms revs. ._

" WE are lost indeed, for ‘our ‘mainlaagl’ is
an iceberg, and we are drifting throng: an
unknown seal”

“ Impossible!”

“I wish I could dispossess m
terrible belief, but I cannot,
certainly adrift l"

“ In unknown latitudes and untracked seas."

“ Alas, yes I”

' The two American boys faced each other fru-
a moment with the horror of their situation
before them. Just where the were they did
not-know, for, without a. sing e com a, they
were ‘lost among the icebergs of, he polar
re ons.
ed Manly and Dick Mizzen were Nantucket
boys whose fathers, wherever theyr went, were
' knoivn as the best Whalers of New England. It
was not stran 9, therefore, that the boys grew
up with a fon nose for whale-fishery, that their
first toys were miniature harpoons and seal-

mind of the
ick. We are

spears. V
One month before they were to be found
.among the youth of Nantucket; now they were
the risoners of an iceberg which was drifting
slow y down an unknown channel.
Let us see how their change of situation came

about.

a The Belle of Nantucket was one of the most
successful! whaling vessels in the service. Her
voyages to the most remote fishing grounds of

i the far North had secured for her a reputation
which was enviable in certain quarters so that
whalemen were alwa s eager to sail under
Ca tain Jared Crosby, er commander.

aBtain Crosby was a lover of boys, and Ned

and ick had attracted his attention durin a

stay in Nantucket, and when they told him t at

they would like to visit the Northern whaling
wastage?! promised that their desires should be

gm .

They had whaled oi! the coast of Labrador
with man exciting adventures and much
pleasure; ut ever since a r§port of white
whales in Egan’sst reached antulctliet,‘ti;%y
was: angler ca. err harpoons no 0 e
 lel.

Captain osby did not forget his promise to
theboys for when he a in eft Nantucket for
whalingl’grounds which e had not yet explored,
thfiyoung whales-e accom anie'd him. .

ed' andfliek were (1 ghted, for they were
not renew ‘ from home but had departed
'with m in consent of their arents.

We are not going to d with the Belle’s
voyage, more than to say that two small sperm
whales were taken in Davis Strait, and several
at the mouth of Lancaster Sound. Crosby pushed
on despite the threateninfi ice which seemed
about tocrush the ship. , 9 had reports of a.
comparatively open sea in the neighborhood of
Melville Islands. There/where the new fishing
grounds whose wealth in whales report said no
person could estimate.

For the first time the Bella’s crew began to
murmur: but the captain kept on with his glass

tuxied constantl to the West.
is last, after ys of hardshgg and exertion,
theBelle entered what appear to be an o u

use. Here and there were packs of drift ce,
but none approached the Whaler, and no gla-

ciers or labor were in eight.

Confident t t the ion -eought whalin
,p‘oundshndbeen reached 0 mbllug uni ~
or: became cheerful team an shared their
on n’s enthusiasm.

‘ There sheblowsl" Wt from the funds
d tantly every man

on board the whaler became excited.
It was the first sign. ofwhales that had yet
I Se ral m e  lowered f the
We were or ,
chose. to Who  prawns: flan-
l’y and Dick Mimen sprung armed for the chest

at leviathan. * V ,

!

..:.. V

 

Unfortunately for the boat's crew the long
day was drawin to a close; but the whale-boa
Was carried ra i y from the shi . for the other
men were aux one to reach and s rike the whale

Ned Manly looked back but once u n the
Belle, and then turned away, little 1; ' ‘ng
that he had seen her for the last time.

Suddenl. the man who stood in the prow of
the whale- oat with ready harpoon uttered an
exclamation of discovery. The whale had risen
to the surface almost within striking distance
and straight ahead.

“Jack will have to throw soon if in iron
d0es not strike the whale first!“ exclaime Ned,
as he passed forward with a harpoon in his
hand and his eyes blazin with excitement.

The next moment Jac Marline’s spear shot
from his hand and struck the huge monster,
which sunk before Ned could deliver his har-

poon.
' The whale seemed to go straight down, and

the line ran out so rapi
afraid it would catch fire.

“ Down to the mermaids’ alaces!” remarked
Dick, as he and Ned watche the line.

“Just as if they have mermaids in these
frozan regions !” was the reply. “ But look! the
line is not taut."

"He’s rising!” said the old harpooner. “Let
every tar keep his e es open now.”

Jack stood ready or the wounded whale with
another harpoon. The other two boats were
not in sight; a terrible accident had called them
back to the ship, Suddenly a cry of horror
rose from J ack’s throat.

“ Luff! luff! for heaven‘s sake!” he cried.
“ The fish is coming up under us I”

The men realized their awful situation in the
twinkling of an eye, and tried to obey the bar—
pooner’s orders, but too late!

With a crash that deafened all, the enraged
fish struck the boat between middle and stern,
and sent it spinning into the air with all its
crew! '

Such an admixture of men, ours and ropes
was never seen before in whaling seas. For a
moment they remained in mid-air, then all
came down into the icy waters. Fortunately
the whale—boat righted as it struck, and the
men made for it. The whale had disappeared,
the harpoon having pulled out, and the Whalers
were glad to note this.

The Nantucket boys did not lo=e their heads,
but swam with others for the boat. Ned was
drawn over its side by old Jack, while Dick got
in by his own exertions. A count of the boat’s
crew showed that two were drowned, one the
second mate, a first-class man, whose place it
would behard to fill.

‘.‘ For the shi now!” was the cry, and the
boat was heade toward the Belle.

Men and boys were almost chilled to death; a
cold wind seemed to freeze the very marrow of
their bones, and, added to their discomfort,
was the fear of another attack by the Whale.

The whale-boat fairly flow through the water,
and every eye was strained to catch a glimpse
of the Belle. - ’

“Dick! Dick! yonder is where the old ship
should lie, but she is not in si ht.”

These words, whispered by L ed over his com:
panion’s shoulder, made the latter start, and be-
foxge he could speak avoioe at his elbow cried
ou : .

“ My God! there is no ship waiting for us X”

Every oar stood still.

No shi in sight? It could not be!

The w ale~boat seemed to rest on an elevated
plateau of water. On every side lay the north-
ern sea, without the sign of a ship on its icy
waves. The situation of the boat’s crew was
appalling. Men who would not have hesitated
to spring upon a. wounded whale’s buck and fix
another be con there, stored blankl at one
another. ed and Dick stood side y side,
clasping each other-{s hand as they gazed upon
the watery waste before them.

“Courage!” said Dick at last. “ I am going
to believe that the Belle has slipped her moor-
ings for‘another anchorage.”

’ ‘No! no! 1 shal nspat no delusive straws,”
wasNed’s instan . ejoinder, spok‘en in a tone
ting. dicglim]: have outreach h“ % gases t til; 51%
neon c,a n ougi . ‘ou ave
read about theplgglsexg’ ‘

The whaler that was sunk, more than sixty
years ago by a mad whale?”

(I You.” -

“ You believe, then that the Belle has been
sentIin a’like manner to the bottom?"
I 0 , . . , v

-. “I cdnnot believe, Ned, that a whale coma
sink such a ship as ours was, yet the loss of the

ly that the mate was

 

Essex attests the powers of those monsters,” roe
plied Dick. ' , ' ,

Ned Manly did not reply, but turned to old
Jack, who sat in this: prow of, the  with his
heaiddbetweeu his ands, the picture of grief
an r.

“We must not lie here !" exclaimed the Nan- ‘

tucket boy. “ Night seems to be gathering
around us. Let us make an efl’ort to find the

ship}: . '

words threw new life into the hearts of
the down-hearted whalemen: but why search
for a ship which all had ven up for lost?

The hunt that follow was destined to boa
fruitless one. The men worked with all their
might in the cold arctic twilight, but moment
by moment hope ebbed away, and at last, un-
der the overhanging. cliffs of what appeared to
be a mountain of ice, they rested on their ears
and gaveup the search.

Weary and almost dead, the lost Sailors drag-
ged their boats ashore and prepared to pass the
most, fearful of nights. By the aid of their
harpoons and ice-hooks Ned and Dick scaledthe
icy cliffs for a lcok_seaward.

The scene that lay around them was too deso-
late for description; cliflTs of ice and a cold sea
whose waves had a disconsolate murmur were
all they saw. No ship! /

All at once a noise like the fall of a mountain
'stiirtled thlefiboy Evhgleiis,i and tab; fiext iti‘itstang
asrge 'onote ce e a an
droppedpiilto the sea. berg pa

A column of water was thrown hundreds of
feet into the air, and deluged the young adven-
turers as it fell back.

When they looked again, they saw that their
companions had disappeared with the detached
muss! Note. sign of men or boat was visible.
With throbless hearts and minds fully alive to
their peril, the Nantucket boys crept down the
cliff and made their way to the water’s edge.
With a cry of jc Dick discovered the empty
whale-boat, and t is har cons of the boys drag-
ged it beyond the arm 0 danger. ,

They passed the ni ht under the whale-boat
shivering in the cold, §ut not without hope.

“Let us not forget that we represent old
Nantucket,” said Ned. “ I am confident that
we are on the ice-incrusted edge of some main-
land which must be inhabited. To-morrow we
will explore our Crusoe abode.”

When the darkness gave place to another
arctic morning, cold, cheerless, and without a
sun, the castaways crept from under the up-
turned beat and set about to explore their pri-
son.

Then it was that Ned Manly made the terri—
ble discovery announced at the beginning of
this ch» ter: that their mainland was an ice-
berg an that it was slowly carrying them fur-
ther to seal

Thus was brought about the thrilling change
which had taken lace in the fortunes of t e
Nantucket boys. rom the cose cabins of the
Belle thev had been transferre to the inhos—
pitable cliffs of an iceberg which, 33‘ ' tron:
what had already occurred, was be“ 1: any
moment to go to pieces!

“We’ve got a boat, two seal ,and a
harpoon," said Ned; ‘ and with 15 em in this
place I feel richer than a Vanderbilt!”

 

CHAPTER 11.
name m m em.

FORTUNAT‘ELY for the boy castaways the spot
where they had passed the dreary arctic night
was sheltered from the wmds by huge piles of ice
which in some places. was thickly coated with
snow. They had managed to kee from freez-
ing by lying close ether under t e whale-boat

around whose sides t ey had heaped some snow *

which excluded the cold air; otherwise, clad as
the were, they would have perished.

'des the weapons which Ned had just
enumerated and cheerfully commented u on,
they possessed two belt-knives of which hey
might stand in need at some future time. The
fol of apart of the berg had carried the wane
pone belon g to thelrest of the partyto the
depths of t unknown sea, and the boys were
forced to put up with the scanty supply left
to them.

During the ht their bet had undoubtedly
drifted a long 6 stance, I“ t e scenery around
them was new cqmspared to that upon winch
they had mad 311 before retiring. The wa-
ter which ad been Comparativer open was
now a tumbled archipel o of floating islands,
amou which their icy p son was a giant.
1).“; we only had a compass!” exclaimed

1c .

’ Valle

 

l , v

The Lost  

.3

 

 

“ And a sextant, but fate has not been lavish
with her ts so far as we are concern " was
Ned’s rep y. "If we are to the north o Mel-
ville flay, as we may be, we may reach Tes-
nissak harbor where 'Kane measured that gi-
gentle iceber which contained twenty-seven

illiou cubica feet of ice." .

“Uur berg is no baby, Ned,”  Dick sur-
veyed with awe the white peaks which rose for
hundreds of feet above their heads.

A few minutes later their berg grated against
another of smaller dimensions,  then struck
a field of table ice several inches thick. Through
this obstruction it moved With the irresistible

war of a steam plow, and amid noise of break-
ing ice almost deafening. _

“ Isn’t it grand!" cried Dick. forgetful for a.
moment of t eir situation as the berg crunched
throu b the mass filling the air with glittering
partic es of ice and snow.

It was, indeed, a sublime spectacle, one which
the youthful castaways could not behold with-
out feelings of awe.

Far above their heads flew numerous large-L

winged birds like arctic gulls. Now and then
they would swoop down and give the boys a
glimpse of their white wing: then away again
among the icy cliffs of the rg. Ned watched
these birds a long time with the cravings of
hunger tormentin him, for since leaving the
ill—fated Belle of antucket, he had touched no
food. The exciting fortunes which had befallen
them since then had caused them in a measure
to forget the wants of the bod ; but now nature
was asserting her rights, an the sight of the
birds which were good for food, increased her
demands.

“ Those birds may have nests up yonder,
Dick,” suddenly said Ned. “ If you wil watch
here, I will hunt for a breakfast of some kind.”

“Agreed!” was the response. “In another
hour I will be in a condition to breakast on a
piece of manila rope."

Armed with harpoon and his belt-knife, Ned
Manly began to scale the ice—cliffs of the berg.
This was no easy task, but the boy, used to the
masts of Whalers and the bleak c of Lab-
rador, went aloft with an agillt hat called
forth a cheer from Dick who watc ed him with
anxious eyes.

“Heaven grant that he may find some eggs
if noghing more!” fell from Dick’s lips as he

are .

Ned continued to ascend with that rare good
fortune which nearly always attends the darin ,
and Dick at last saw him wave his cap, whic
was made of sealsldn, a hundred feet above
his head; but whether the signal meant joy
over his feat or the discovery of food, the
anxious spectator did not know.

For several moments afterward Ned Manly
disappeared, and when Dick again saw him his
body looked smaller! than ever for he had
climbed higher—nearer the cheerless sky above
the barge!

All at once a voice came down from the
adventurous climber.

“ Hurrah! hurrah! the ship! the ship 1”

" He must be mistaken,’ ejaculated Dick.
“The Belle cannot be in these parts. Ned may
see come delusive object—’3

“The ship is really in Sight from here!” was
Ned’s interruption. “ I can see her plain] , for

r the ice has lifted her from the sea, an sur-

rounds her oompletel .” ,
the far north the slightest noises can be
heard at astonishing distances. Men have been
able to carr .on conversation in ordinary tones
when a In 9 apart therefore Dick distincth
heard every word that his companion uttered.
The discover of the ship in the ice excited
him not a litt e. He ran to the foot of the

clifl’sand began to ascend with the seal spears '

which proved valuable assistants. Ned, mean-
while, was feasting his eyes on the vessel which,
according to his calculation, Was not more than
four miles distant. The table ice through which
their berg was still crashing Seemed to extend
to a lot of hummocks, which, in their turn,
reached to the unfortunate bri ,for the clear
atmosphere had enabled Ned t0 eelde that the
barque was not a Whaler like the Belle of Nan-
tucket. The pro ess of the iceberg had been
lessened during t e last few minutes, for the
table ice had grown thicker, and it 'would be
impossible for the boys to be carried much
further by their driftin rison.

“Look yonder!” sai
the ship as Dick joined him on the p of the
cliff. ‘Our bergis going to halt shortly, for

’ the table ice gets thicker, but this need not be

against us, for we can drag the boat over the
hammocks to the barque which is not the
7! ’ , .

ed pointi taward _

 

Dick did not reply; for his eyes were riveted
on the vessel which set high and dry on the ice
that surrounded her.

Hammocks are ridges of broken ice, hard to
cross and dangerous. They abound every-
where in the North Polar seas, and try the en-
durance of the men and dogs when they at
tem t to cross them. Some of the edges cut
like ives, while others are rounded and slip-
pery; between them are deep fissures into
which the dog-teams sometimes fall much to
the annoyance of the intrepid explorers.

The boy Whalers had no dogs to look after on
this occasion, yet their whale boat had to be
transported across the hummocks that lay be-
tween them and the ship, for, to leave it be-
hind, would be to expose it to dangers which
are known only in the frigid zone. Luckily a
long piece of strong manila. rope remained to
them after the loss of their com anions; it had
been fastened to the boat, an now proved
valuable. A good deal of snow covered the ice
that formed the table-land before them, and
they soon discovered that the whale-boat was
no great load, for they had made shoulder
belts or rue-raddies out of a part of the rope,
and dragged the craft easily behind them.

The journey to the edge of the hummocks
was soon accomplished, but then the task
came. The boys had forgotten hunger in the
discovery of the icebound brig, and they now
felt the need of full stomachs. The bummocks
rose before them like an insurmountable ban
rier: they no longer saw the vessel, but they
knew that she was not more than a mile away,
but that mile of ice piled on ice appeared to
baffle them.

With a cry of “ Forward l” from Ned the lost
Whalers attacked the hammocks and scaled the
first ridge with difficulty. They now drew the
boat which contained their weapons after them,
and attacked the second barrier. Men would
have become discouraged at the dreary pros-
pect ahead, but the Nantucket boys threw dis-
couragement to the winds and went on.

Suddenl Dick paused and pointed tosome
tracks in t e snow.

“Bear tracks!” exclaimed Ned. “We shall
carry some news to the men on board the brig,
and then join them in a white bear hunt.”

“ If the bear doesn’t hunt us before we reach
the shi ,"responded Dick with a. smile.

The uge tracks of polar bears were quite
numerous on the hammock, but as they led
from the course they were pursuing, the boys
did not take much note of them, but bent all
their energies to reach the vessel as soon as
possible.

The icy ridges seemed to row less surmount-
able as they neared their estination, but Ned
and Dick assumed new courage in spite of the
prospect. At last they dropped exhausted at
the foot of the last ridge, and left their boat
poised above them on the ice ur.

Before them,.but yet severe hundred yards
away, lay the ship which was large and of
foreign build. She had but one mast standing,
the others having been cut away above her
decks; and but few‘ spars were left to be
broken by the fury of the polar tempests.

The boys rested a long time where they had
fallen. They kept their eyes fixed On the ship,
but saw no signs of life about her. If her crew
still lived, they kept below her decks.

At length the journey was resumed to-
ward the barque, and Ned was the first to
clamber u the ice that surrounded her and
gain her eck. A scene that beggars descrip-
tion met his gaze. Ice and and snow were
everywhere, but here and there were tracks of
bears and foxes. Nota sound came up from
below to tell that life still existed there, and
the young castaways readin believed that the
cabins of the unfortunate barque ‘were full of
dead men.

“ Leteus 0 below and solve this arctic mys-
tery,” said ed to his awe-stricken companion.
“ I see a hatchway open and it invites us. Come
on!

A moment later the boys found themselves at
the foot of a ladder, and in a dark place that
had a damp smell.

The silence of death was around them. .

“ VVe’re among the dead l” whispered Dick.

“1 don’t think so," was Ned’s reply, "for I
think I see a light.”

“ No! no! not alight in this dungeon.”

“ Follow me!” -

The boy Whalers drew their belt-knives as
thgy groped their way down a darkfioxridor,
N in the lead. He could not think it possible
that his eyes had declared him for he bullpen
a light or nothi

n .
“What did fiell you?" he suddenly whis-

a

 

pared as he stopped, turned, and clutched DWI
arm

“ A lamp!” was Dick’s response. .

. The boys had entered what was a shi ’s cabin
as the dim light visible in the place to d them.
They saw the strange furniture by degrees,
and the antique table on which the lamp stood,
but no living being besides themselves.

Di“_Listenl I hear a watch!” suddenly said

OK.

Ned did not reply but bounded toward the
table where he stopped and stared at some ob—
ject lying before him. Dick did not remain
long from his side, and the twain held their
breath while they stared at and listened to the
ticking of the elegant watch lying near th

In?!

01: faraway lay a compass and a sextant
but these had not been handled for many days,
as their metal was covered with frost.

“I‘ll get our bearings first," nidANed as he
reached out his'hand for the compass, but at.
that moment came a crash and a growl that
almost lifted them oif their feet!

D_“l;1‘here are bears in this ship!” exclaimed

IC .

 

CHAPTER III.
A BOY DEMON or THE NORTH. ,

T0 the startled boys it seemed asif a bear
had fallen down the hatchway. They instantly
turned from the table to meet the terrible
monster if he sought an attack. Ned clung to
his belt-knife while Dick exchanged his for the
formidable seal spear brought to the barqne
from the boat. _

For several moments a singular silence rcign- r
ed throughout the ship: but suddenly the owls
broke forth again, and became almost eaten-
ing. It now became evident that one if not
two beers were struggling in the gloom at the .
end of the corridor the boys had traversed to.
the cabin. -

“Let them fight it out,” said Dick as be
bounded toward the cabin door for the
of shutting it against all intruders. “ t in
their fi ht, Ned, and it may be worth our lives
tointe ere."

“But think of thelusciousbear-steaks we might
gain.” was the response.. “ I’m in for attacking
the animals.”

“ Just as you say; where Ned Manly leads,
Dick Mimen will follow.”

Before the lost Whalers could mature any
plans, a strange cry, only half human, came
from the darkness behind them, and across the
gabin floor rushed a two-legged object clad in ,

ur! '

“Heavens! what was that?” gasped Dick
involuntarily recoiling, for the apparition had
gig-fist touched him. “ This old craft ishaunted,

“ Haunted? ovor the left 1" was Ned’s re‘ply.
“ We have just seen the person who has m
the watch going. He is going to attack
bears. Let us elp him and make a friend.”

Dick did not more than half believe his com-
rade’s assertion; but he did not hesitate to
spring after Ned. Their fortunes were identi-
cal, and to succeed in anything they must stand .
to ether. 1 ‘ '

ed picked up the lamp as he left the table,
and held it above his head, while he led Dickv
down the corridor. ,

The terrible struggle of the monsters at the
bottom of the hatchway continued with una—
bated fury, and seemed to shake the entire ship.
Their identity was no longer doubted, for their
growls betrayed them to the boys.

“Where’s our fur-demon?” asked Dick an
Ned halted a short distance from the bears.

“ Yonder, and a demon he is.” too.” -

A few feet away an object clad in fur from
head to foot and armed with a long spear was
vigorouflg taking rt in the battle of the
bears. T_ e huge w ite monsters of the arctic
world were devoting themselves to each other
despite the spear thrusts of the new enemy.
'tll'lhey wsze on the floor is t:ntei'i'ilzlle struggle foil;

ema r,sna ing, i' an tearmg' wit‘
claw and. iiioothlpp ' g _ ‘

Ned and Dick could not but watch the
stranger who at times almost threw himself
bodily into the melee. He appeared a youth of
their own age, but he wore such an abundance
of arctic clothing that he looked like an am?
mated ball armed with a spear. The and
the boys did not disconcert him in the east:
the former showed him where to strike, and the
latter seemed to raise his ho '

“Be aballnot I have I
a???”  the L l ' “he?

ic man sp 0 strange o 1
assistance with his sad spear Which mystron‘

 

.1

I

r 34

l

and keen, and a moment later the twain fought
side by side and gave some thrusts which told
the conten i2? bears that others had entered
the fight. N , armed only with the belt—knife,
found that he could render them assistance by
holding the light in the right position, and this
he resolved should be his share of the battle.
“Send your spears homel” he called out,
loudly to the twain who zealously attacked the
polars. _, “ Make sure work before the monsters
sus end their fight and attack you.”
here was danger of Dick and his ally not
being ableto do this. If the bears should turn
on them, the light would truly become one for

life.
, Suddenly the fur-demon, as Dick had named
the strange youth, drove his spear deep into the

\ body of' the under-bear, just behind the fore-

shoulder. He gave it several cruel twists be—
fore he ventnred to Withdraw it. Aterrible
death-howl announced the fatality of this stroke,
\and the animal turned as the boy removed his
Weapon which came headless from the wound.

A cry of rage burst from the fur-boy's throat

as he cast the. worthless weapon aside and
.turned to Dick, who was in the act of dealing
a blow at the topmost animal about to free him—
self from his antagonist.

"Give Netek seal-spear, boy i" cried the fur-
boy, at the same time snatching the spear from
Dick’s hand and charging the bear.

For a minute he attacked the largest bear
with vigor, and dealt blows and thrusts that
filled the spectators with amazement.

" Go up! go up, m’noo I” he cried continually
to the monster, whom he forced ,upon his
haunches, and obliged him to defend himself
With his fore paws, which were covered with
bloc-i. ‘ “Ninoo, go back to your people, and
till them that Netek has killed your mate with
h s spear. ;

Toe Equimaux—for the little bear-fighter’s
naiiie,]us uttered by himself, proclaimed his
nationality—fought fiercely while he talked.
He gave the furious animal no time to assume
the offensive, but ke t him on the defensive
with the rapidity of h a blows.

“ Hurrah! Netek, you are forcing him backl”
exclaimed Dick, who saw that the hear was
giving way before the attack. “Kill him if
you C‘ID."

“ No, no! Netek send him away tomake meat
for the Innuits when the famine gets stronger,”
was the reply. “Netek must not kill ninoo
now.”

’ The bear, bleeding from many wounds, was
forced toward the steps which led to the snow—
oovered deck of the brig. Netek followed him
With the courage of a young lion, and forced
him up the short stairs at the gory point of
Dick a spear. -

“ Good-by, m’uoo I” cried the Esquimaux,
when the huge form of the white monster dark—
ened the hatchway no longer. “By—and-by
the starving Innuits will feed on you and grow
strong again."

The fur-boy came back to Ned and Dick as he
concluded. for thelgmung whalers stood together
,near the carcass o the lat.

Ned held the lamp c cue to Netek‘s face and
regurded him with a great deal of curiosity.
He had seen Esquimaux before, but there was

~. somethin about this one that strangely at;
tracted him. Netek’s outer coat was deer-skin;
it was closed in‘froiit, and on his shoulder lay a
jumper hood, which was bordered with white
fur. When in the cold air he would draw this
over his head and hold in his mouth the fox-veil
that hung on his breast. Boots of seal skin,
soled with walrus-hide, and mite of reindeer-
skin completed Netek’s a para). He looked

/ grotesque in the eyes of t 9 boy Whalers, but
his (lees eyes and o n countenance over-
balanee his oddity 0 dress, and made Ned

. put forth his hand after a brief survey.

Off went one of Netek’s mittens, and be and
Ned Manly clasped hands in the old ice-bound
bri . 'Dick then -hook hands with his late ally,
an the most faithful friendship that ever exist-
ed within the lar circle was formed.

Netek- can] with difficulty keep his eyes
from the bear that lay at their feet. It was not
so large as the one that had esca d, but it was
a monster ,for all that, and look lean and half-
btarvad despite its immensity. The Innuit’s
eyes glitteiied ravenoualy as he gazed, and Ned
and Dirk felt that, hunger pressed him as well
as other.

r “What ‘ship is this, and where are her,

sailors!” asked Ned. ,

“Ship Oscar: crew all gone,” replied Netek
whose English told his listeners that he had imi
"no little
limb.-

" l

 

euling with white explorers in the ‘
v '> g

\ l

l .  zest Boy wants.

3‘ 
dead?"
“ Dead, mebbe. All gone away, anyhow. ”

“ Ahl they have abandoned the brig.”

“ Yes, yes, go away from ship on ago.
Oap’n die, mates die, men go off with edges
and dogs.”

“ Why did they leave?”

“ Nothing left to eat here; they boil rope and
make soup before they go.”

“Horrible!” exclaimed Dick. “ But how
long have you been here, Netek?”

The Innuit boy held n his hands with his
fingers spread apart to in icate ten.

“ Ten days!” said both boys at once.

Netek responded with a nod and a smile.

“ I’d like to know the nationalit of this
brig,” Ned said glancing at his comra e. “ I’m
afraid she is destined to be our abode for some
time to come. What kind of men were those
who abandoned this vessel?”

“ Book tell,” said Netek.
then chew up bear steaks.”

The Esquimaux led the way to the cabin
which all had lately deserted for the bear-fight,
and drewa small iron chest from a darkened
corner.

“Talking books in there,” he said as Ned
held his lamp over the box whose lid had been
thrown back by the fur-boy.

A shi ’s log was readily discovered among
some at or papers in the chest, and Ned breath-
lesslv opened it as Netek disappeared.

“This is the Danish brig Oscar,” he said,
glancing up at Dick. “I find that she sailed
rom Copenhagen almost two years ago. Cap-
rain Carl Ohlsen was her commander; lie is
dead, Netek says. Ahl here is the last entry
dated seven months ago. ” ’

“ Read it," said Dick eagerly.

“It is written in three Ian ages and reads
thus: “We buried Ca tain‘ hlsen, Mate Tar-
sen and five sailors to 23y. Out of a crew of
forty-five men that left openhagen, but ten of
us remain. We have made into soup the last
piece of manila rope and walruseskin about the
ship; and now, with our dogs and two sledges,
we are going to set out for Tasnavik, trusting
all to heaven. Four of our men will have to be
hauled on the sledges. We have suffered as
sailors never suffered before. If we reach
Tasnavik, we will erect a monument of grati-
tude to the good Father whose care has been
over us all the time. May we see dear old
Denmark a inl”

“ Who gas the log?” asked Dick much
moved when Ned had finished.

“Christian Olanson.”

“One of those simple Danish sailors whose
bravery and fortitude no man has ever ques-
tioned. I trust all reached Tasnavik.”

“ And that all saw dear old Denmark again."

“ Yes, Ned l”

At that moment Netek‘s voice was heard.

“ Bear meat and blood!” cried the Innuit.

“ Ah! what afeastl” ejaculated Ned spring-

as

gone? What‘do you mean, Netek—

“We go see first,

in up “ Fortune has smiled upon us at
We need not say that the trio did am le jus-
tice to the meal set before them all by etek’s

skillful hands.

They enjoyed the bear’s meat and drank of
her warm blood, both of which added new
strength to their bodies, and filled their souls
with new courage.

For'awhile they forgot their situation, but a
loud crashin of ice not far from the brig
speedily reca led it. They rushed from the
feast upon deck.

“Look at our berg!” exclaimed Ned. “ How
narrow has been our second escape!”

The cause of the crash was ap rent-a large
portion of the iceberg which he carried them
so many miles through polar waters had fallen
like an undermined palace!

And the hummocks quite near the ship
were moving as if some sea monster was trying
to lift them up from beneath.

The boy Whalers held their breath.

Netek alone, was composed.

 

CHAPTER IV.
now max saccnrn A son.

F017. several minutes the noise and the sway—
ing of the hammocks continued; the brig quiv-
ered from stem to stem, and the boys would
have averred that every timber had been shaken
by the berg.

" Ice retty near strong enough to break
bummer: s.up,"said Netek, the first of the three
to ,

some whale seemed imprisoned beneath the

/

spec . ,
“ What do you mean 3’" asked Ned. “To me, '

 

hammocks and'was making a desperate dash

for liberty.” .

‘ftNo fish there; ice do it all,” smiled the 1;-
nm . I

Netek then went on to explain in his own
way how the gigantic masses of ice, after fall-
ing into the sea, had been carried under the
hammocks before they could rise; how, comin
surfaceward with great force, they had struc

the foundations of the ice ridges, and caused]

the shock which the ship had felt. .

“You say, Netek, that there is a famine in
this country at this time?” said Ned. '
_ “Esquimaux dying in their i loos for want
of food,” was the reply. “Nets came down
to the ship for anything the poor sailors might
have_left, but they eat up everything except
the big rats. Deer all gone from the Innuit
hunting—grounds, and the seals will not come
back till waters get warmer.”

“ That time is a. long way off if I am not mis-
taken. This is August, and the arctic winter
will soon be ugh us!"

The youn uimaux nodded approvingl .

“ Netek oun bear-tracks about the gip
when he first,come here. He watch for them
but they would not come near. Ninoo afraid
of Netek’s spear!" and the fur-boy drew his
handsome figure. up and spoke with pride.

Aslthe air where the trio stood was biting

cold, although the Innuit did not feel it much.

under his thick clothing, Ned proposed an in-
spection of the Oscar for the purpose of ascer-
tailing what articles Christian Olanson and his
companions had left behind.

A year’s sojourn where the ice had lifted her
from the sea had sprung many of the brig’s
timbers; but her sides and inner decks were
thickly coated with ice, and the real interior,
or that rt of the Oscar below the hatches—-
her cab us, cook-rooms, and hold—was cour
paratively warm. The furnaces had been fed.
with the masts and much inside timber for the
purpose of keeping the Danish whal- rs warm,
so t at the Oscar could not stand many rough
seas if she ever got adrift again.

The larder of course was empty, cleaned to
the lastscrap, and the blubber cask! had been
scra d and boiled by pieces. Netek led Ned
and ick throu h the bri with an ease which.
told that be h inspec her before.

“Here sortiething good,” he said, entering a
little room and taking from one corner what
turned outto be a fine Marston rifle such as
Kane used during his stay in the frozen north.

Ned uttered a cry of ‘oy as he took the valu-
able weapon from the s uimanx’s hands, but
a moment later his look c anged to one of dis-
appointment; the villainous rate had almost
gnawed the stock in twol

“ Plen of iron rope on board,” said Nate
interpret ng the boy’s disconsolate look, “a
more shooting-guns here”. ,

By this time the light of the lamp had pane.
trated the little apartment, and its contents
were revealed. These consisted of the hunti
equipment of a large whalin brig, minus. 0
course, the guns and ammunition carried 01! by
Olanson and his friends. There were seven
rifles and two large towing-pieces: but with
the stocks of all the rats had p 8. 'ed sad havoc.
The ammunition was found in envy tin can.
isters which were rat—proof, as was proved by
the marks of teeth upon their sides.

A good deal of bedding was found in the
ship. In the sleeping-room one bunk-was mv—
cred with the Danish flag, evidence to the Nan-
tucket boys that Ca tain Ohlsen had died there.
Nothin in the med cine—chest—not even a bot—
tle. Oanson had probably depleted this do-
partment on his departure.

“ Not’so bad, after all,” said Ned, cheerfully,

after they had returned to the main cabin.
“We are well prepared with fire-arms, and
have one of the best of friends and allies in
Netek. We have bear-meat enough to last us
some time, and I ex ect to hunt some more be-
fore man days. ow do you like the new
quarters, ick?”
/ “This isn’t Nantucket, nor even the Belle,"
was Dick’s reply. “ We are probably the solo
survivors of the Whaler, and are thousands of
miles from home.” ‘

“ When spring opens and floats the Oscar we
may go to the pole."

“In this old shell?”

“Afoot, then, over the hummockii which,
Netek says, are always ‘to be found to the
north.”

The “iron rope" which the young Innuit
said would fit the guns for service had turned
out to be several la: e coilsof wire, which

be Oscar’s furnaces, which were one? more

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{folded readily to man pulation, and in front of i -‘

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gflow, Ned and Dick mended the rifles while

match stripped the dead polar of his valuable

e. ,

When, with eyes that fairly glistened, the
Esquimaux threw the great hide like a blanket
before the boy gun-menders, a cry of astonish-
ment was heard. ‘

“What a warm suit it would make!” ex-
claimed Ned.

! “Netek see boy in bear-skin before long ”
was the quick re 'oinder. “ And you, ” to Dick,
“have one, too, y-an’—by.”

The boy whalers’ first night in the brig prom-
ised to be a comfortable one when they laid
down. Notwithstanding that the thermometer
left behind by the Danish sailors registered
twirty-two degrees below zero, the little room
was comparatively warm, for the fires had not
been permitted to go dewn for a moment. Ne«
tek, in his deer-skin coat and jumper-hood, the
latter drawn completely over his head, scorned
the bedding whic his com anions offered him,
and was soon asleep on the cor. Ned and Dick,
huddled close together, soon for ot their cheer-
less situation in sleep, and the ow stars of an
arctic night were the only spectators of the

scene.

“ Dick! Dick! are you awake?” were the
words whispered into Dick Mizzen’s ear as a
lignd at his shoulder shook sleep from his eye-

1 s. .

He recognized Ned’s voice in an instant.

“.Of course I’m awake,” he said. “ What has
happlenedr’

‘ hat is what I do not know. Listen a mo-
ment.”

Together the boys listened in the demi-gloom
that pervaded the sleeping-room. ,The fires had
gone down, but they did not feel cold, and the
lamp which burned steadily a short distance
away showed them Netek rolled up on the floor
like a sleeping sloth.

A strange noise like the steady tramp of a
sentr on the Oscar’s u per deck was the sound
whic the young Wha are heard after a mo-
ment’s listening. it puzzled them, and caused
them to throw inquisitive glances at the Innuit
boy, wondering why he slept on with thetramp,
tramp overhead.

“ It is plain to me now!” suddenly said Ned.

“ Well?”

“ The bear has come back!”

“With a coat on his back for me I”exclaimed
Dick. “ Waken Netek—quickl or the white
monster may take a notion to leave."

Dick sprung up as he 8 he, and would have
wakened the Esquimaux imself if Ned had not
arrested his hand.

"Let us do it ourselves, Dick. We have the
Marston rifles—loaded and ready for service. I
.know the way to the little hatch shaft, and the
blubber vats there will screen us while we fire.”

The idea leased Dick, and he watched Ned
remoye the _ mp without molesting Netek, who,
in blissful ignorance of what was happening,
ale t like a post. ' ,

rmed with two mended rifles, the ice-bound
boys glided from the room. Ned was not wrong
when he assured Dick that he knew the we to
the little hatch directly behind the wind ass.
and after a few minutes’ threading of several
cold, musty corridors, the young bravos ascend-
ed the ladders to the battered hatch, which. as
Ngd had suspected, was fastened on the under
51 e

The boys’ do are were cold , but he managed
to draw the b0 ts, and slowly raised the door.
The hear was still pacing the deck in the bright
starlightas if keeping guard over the tenants
of the bug. and the boys scarcely breathed as
they raised their heads ,above the level of the
flOO!‘ and Peeped between the two heavy iron
pots used for frying out whale oil during a
cruise. ,

At first they saw nothing, but all at once a
monster in white a eared before them and
tried their nerves. he polar was a giant of
‘ his kind, and as be halted suddenly near the

mainmast and began'to snuff the air, the bear-

killers had a grand View of his proportions.

“ Let us give him the contents of our Mars-
tons,” said Dick, in a whisper- "He presents
an admirable target just now."

“ I am quite ready, but we must shoot to kill l”
was Ned’s reply. ' _

The locks clicked with but little noise as the
two rifles crept forward, and the boy Whalers
aimed directly at the polar’s heart.

All at once, as it but one rifle had spoken, the
liarstons discharged their deadly contents, and
the huge bear reeled away and fell heavily
upon the decli’. 4 _ ,

“A suit for a shot i" cried Dick springing up
and bounding between the oil ke es, ‘

A

l

The next moment he slipped on the icy deck
with a cry, and before he could rise two other
bears, which the boys had not seen, rushed upon
him with growls of rage! ’

Ned saw his companion's peril and uttered a
loud shout as he sprung to his rescue.

He attacked the polars, which were not quite
half grown, justas they were about to throw
themselves upon Dick, and his first blow broke
the rifle in the place where it had been mended.

The stroke, however, staggered the bear, and
enabled Dick to regain his feet. .

The following instant an animated ball of fur
bounded up from below.

“ Netek! thank fortune l" asped Dick, who,
it lgudt he confessed, was t oroughly fright-
ene .

The young Innuit seemed to comprehend the
situation of affairs at a glance. Armed with
a long seal spear be vigorously attacked the
young bears, whic , instead of showing further
fight, ran to the ship’s side, and, with the agility
of fox-hounds, jumped overboard upon the ice
that surrounded her.

CHAPTER V.
NED HUNTS AND Is HUNTED. ,

HAVING obtained two excellent bear'skins,
the next work was to manufacture them into
clothing. This task was assumed by Netek,
who turned out to be a real arctic tailor, for be
fitted his young friends to a nicety, although
they looked odd enough in the strange gar-
meats.

For a number of days the cold was so intense
that the occulpants of the brig did not venture
from her dec . No more bears ventured upon
the vessel, althou h b the aid of a sea-g ass
which had been oun’ on board, several had
been seen on the hummocks at a distance.

Netek said that the wind would lay by-and-
by, and that at the first opportunity all would
try a hunt on the ice for the purpose of obtain-
infia change of food.

very ni ht a white moon hung like a great
wheel In t e sky and the stars had a twmkle
peculiarly icy. Dut few patches of water were
now visible. As if b magic, ice plains and
great bergs had blotte the sea from existence,
as it were, and at all hours the latter could be
heard grinding and crashing against one
another as if in mortal combat.

Some of these ice mountains towered for
hundreds of feet above the sea, and were of
countless shapes. The rays of the ‘arctic moon
caused them to shine like recious stones. Not
far from the Oscar was a erg in one of whose
clifls was a circular hole thatymight have been
drilled by some flying bolt of ice. Ned, who
had discovered it, was not long in showing it to
his com 'ons. Netek regarded it with awe,
for the nnuit was superstitious, and, in spite
of the young whaler’s attempted explanation of
the curiosity, he persistig in en in that the
Evil Spirit had bored it t ough t e c id for the
pa use of we hing them.

at was ed’s surprise when on reaching
the brig’s up r deck one night, he beheld the
opening part y filled with what appeared to be
an owl of gigantic proportions. Thebird seemed
a monstrous apparition, rendered more hostly
by the weird moonlight that revealed h s large
b inking eyes. He was more than one hundred
feet above the deck upon which Ned stood, but
the boy concluded to get a nearer view of the
bird, which could be done by climbing the
Oscar’s main-mast to the refitted look-out which
Olenson and his comrades had left behind.

Thanks to N etek‘s industry, Ned never left
the cabin without be'ing clad in full dress, coat.
jumper—hood and all, and in less time than
we can pen a line, he was climbing the mast.
Motionlesscn his icy perch sat the owl. Ned
thought he was quietly watching him, for, as
h? gong-5d the look-out, the bird showed no signs
0 1g .

The Nantucket boy reached the crow-nest and
discovered that the owl was almost as white as
the berg .on’ which he was perched. He had
ears astonishingly large, and eyes that reminded
Ned of illuminated dessert dishes. Now and
then a sharp crackling noise would reach. the
boy’s ears; it sounded to him like a deriSive
"laugh from the owl—a laugh which seemed to
remind Ned that he could ascend no higher than
the crow-nestyfifty feet from the brig’s deck.

All at once the owl left the icy rm and flew
straight at the boy. The stretch 0 his Wings
was simply enormous, and Ned dodged behind
the mast as if he expected an attack. Whether
the goblinve ed demon of the North had seen
Ned or not, is wings threatened to sweep him
from his perch. In another minute the owl had
disappeared, although the boy adventurer.”

 

 

 

cied he could see him cleaving space far from
theshi ‘ '

Ned waited in the crow-nest for the owl’s
return, but he was not rewarded, and after
half an hour’s sojourn aloft he was about to
descend to acquaint Dick and Netek with his
adventure, when a number of distinct barks
were heard on the ice far away.

“ Dogs!” exclaimed the boy. “A party of
Innuits will soon be with us. Then away goes
our bear—meat.”

He now made haste to descend and as he
ail-uck the deck Dick and Netek rushed up from

ow.

“ Where Ned been?!’ asked the Esquimaux.

“Getting a nearer view of the owl."

“ What owl?”

As Ned spoke he glanced u at the berg and
started; the owl had returne to his perch]

“Your Marston a mement, Dick!” he said,
suppressing rising excitement as he laid his
hands on the rifle in his comrade’s hands.

Not knowing to what use his rifle was about
to be put, Dick , relinquished his weapon which
was at Ned’s shoulder in an instant.

Netek’s eyes caught the elevation of the piece
and saw the owl in the glittering ring of ice.

“Hold, boy!” he suddenly shouted. “That
no owl but Kin-n00 the bad spirit 1”

But he was too late; Ned had touched the
trigger of Dick’s Marston, and the win ed
monster of the polar skies had been knoc ed
from his rch.

“There s the biggest owl in this region !" ex-
claimed Ned, proudly, as he handed the rifle.
back to its owner. “I was hoping he Would
fall on this side of the berg so we could get him
before the Innuits come up. ”

“ What lnnuits?"

“ Why the ones whose dogs are barking out
yonder. "

“Dogs? Those are foxes, Ned, and half-
starved ones at that.”

“ Which means that they will make short
work of my big owl if they reach him before I
do; but this they shall not do i" .

Resolved to obtain his game before the foxes
could come up, Ned hurried below and grasped
one of the fowling-pieces with which he re:
turned to his companions. ’ I

“Where Ned going?" asked Netek.

“ After my ow}. The old fellow was so
contrary as to fall on the other side of the berg,
but he shall not escape me.”

Superstitions fear was readable in the In-
nuit’s eyes, but Ned broke from his detaining
arm, and sprung over the brig’s side. He was
soon hastening toward the berg across the ice
ridges that lay betWeen it and t e brig.

‘ Let him go, Dick,” said Netek, to his com—
panion who was anxious to follow Ned. “ Him
no find Kin-poo, and will come back with foxes
at his heels.” ‘

“They will not chase him?"

“ Foxes no find much to eat now."

Dick watched Ned’s fleeting fl re until it
 around one corner of t e berg, and
hear the farewell shout that came across the
white waste of tumbled ice. «

Ned was too eager to obtain his owl to think
of anything else, and a SuOut of joy escaped his
lips when a huge object rose from the ice ahead
and flew a short distance along the surface of
the snow. It was the gigantic owl. V

The boy whaler sprung forward in eager pur— .
suit, for it was evident that the owl possessed
a broken wing, and could not elude him long.
But he was doomed to have his easil -raised
hopes speedily dashed to earth, for t e bird
flew a long distance before he alighted on the
snow. Ned, however, pressed on resolved to
finish the contest with his fowling-piece.

“ I must be near the bird,” he said, to himself,
as he stopped and tried to make out the owl’s
form on the snow ahead.  . ‘_

He was some distance from the ship which,
he could not see for the huge iceberg that oh-
structed his vision when stretched in that di-
rection. He might be half a ,mile from the
Oscar: he could not tell. ‘

“Ha! my owl l” fell from his li as a whit-
ish object with a pair of saucer-1i e eyes rose
before him and looked around. '

Ned’s piece leaped instantly to his shoulder
and be poured a full charge of penguin shot
into the crippled bird. The whole region round
about seemed to roar with the echoes of his
gun, and instantly the sun pish barkings 0t
troop of white foxes respon ed to the sounds:

Ned Maul sprun forward to securehis game
which had rep :1 k upon the snow. This
zime lit did, nto t:kke flight kg

9 ensure 0 pi ing up uite e
rah  (M of the white North. , It ~

 

 

 

 

 

 

enin

V this novel chase.

. leaders at the pack and tom

3 ' my  m  a... 

 

He was a monster bird and very heavy as,
Ned diqcovered when after inspecting his
beautiful , plumage, he threw him over his
shoulders and turned toward the brig.

Suddenly the foxes barked so near that he in-
voluntarily turned. and looked back as if be ex-
pected-to find them at his heels. He was not
greatly disappointed.

In the clear moonlight of the artic circle one
can distinguish objects at a great distance.
Ned, therefore, had no difficulty in seeing the
scores of doggish heads that faced him forty
yards away; he could even distinguish the
sharp noses and peaked ears of the north polar
foxes which seldom attack man, and then only
‘when rendered desperate by famine.

“Keep our distance, or feel some leaden
pellets!” he shouted to the horde as he started
shi ward again.

.gnumber of aggressive barks made reply
and on came the troop.

Ned increased his gait; from a. fast walk it at
last became a. run. One of the white wings of
the owl dragged in the snow; the huge prize
soon became a burden. ,

“This will never do! These rascally foxes
must be taught a. lesson.”

~ Ned dropped his owl and turned quickly upon

y' his pursuers, who instantly stopped and pointed

their long noses at him.

“I’ll ruffle your snouts for you!” exclaimed
the boy as he touched the trigger of his fowling
piece, and sent a load of shot into the faces of
the pack.

A number of howls of pain told that the shot
had struck, and. slipping in another metallic
cartridge the Nantucket boy picked up his
game and trotted on again}

That‘shot seemed to madden instead of fright-
off the foxes. They now came forward
and orced Ned into a veritable run for life.

He turned the corner of the familiar berg and
saw the almost mastless bulk of the Danish
whale; loom up before him, but the foxes were
at his heels! If there were a dozen in the pack

there were two hundred, and Ned feared that

he would soon be in the midst of all if the Oscar
was not reached.

“Take the owl if you want it!" he said re-
leasing the game for which he had ventured so
much, and almost as soon as the great bird
touched the snow, it was pounced upon by the

[cosmos .

Into the mass that writh over the owl, Ned
poured another charge of penguin shot, which
called the foxes from the‘ carcass to himself
11 am.

gfle ran over. the glittering surface of the
’snow as a he never ran before within the

lar circle. his tormentors seemed to take
alight. in keeping just near enoughto worry
him; but Ned expected every minute to feel
their sharp teeth in- his legs.

On the brig’s deck stood two spectators of
Dick’s face was white from

' fear, and he stood ready to lift Ned over the

M.

J {11151: ith
, -oo o w an
, “J3

ships side, or to pour a volley of death into the
ursuing pack as soon as opportunity oflered
im a pros t without injuring his friend.
Netek’s ace beamed with Suppressed merri-
ment, and D'ck, to his disgust, saw that the
floung Innui was ready to burst into a fit of
ughter.
“ Help! help!” rung out from Ned’s throat in
tones not to be mistaken. “ You are not going

"to let me be eaten alive by foxes, Dicki—Ne-
.tek?"

“ Nev r, Ned I” was Dick’s reply as he sprung
to the scar’s side and jumped over to his
friend’s assistance.

The leap was unnecessary, for at that mo-
ment with his strength almost gone, Ned was
scran‘lbling over the ice which reached to with-
in a few inches of the old hulk's taflrail.

“.Where’s Netekl" gasped the fox—chased
Whaler. ‘

“ Here. Ned l”

Eagerly Ned grasped the hand reached down-
ward for .him. Dick turned and fought back

i the foremost foxes, and Netek who could sup

 his merrlment no longer laughed loudly as

e hauled Ned upon deck.

’Dick Mimn sprung after his rescued com-
panion from the very jaws of the aggressive
animals, and as he landed on the brig’s planks
he found the young lnnuit rolling over and
over in the snow laughing with all his might,
Ned who saw no fun an where, was
flashes in h 3 eyes.

/ i‘ He uld laugh i the foxes had torn me to

' pieces under his, eyes, " flashed Ned as he turned

aw .. ' ' ,
" I“?ng suddenly umped up and seized a

. ,Marston rifle which .e had.leaned against the

stump of the miners-mast. A bound {carried
him to the railin .

A long line 0 foxes faced the hulk about
sixty feet away. Netek took deliberate aim
and fired, then set 11 a wild whoop and in an
instant the bush taifs of the arctic pack were
turned toward t e b ig!

“Foxes no bite. Ned; that what make Netek
laugh," said the Esquimaux as be halted before
the chasedboy. . '

“What do you mean?” cried Ned. “They
were at my legs when Dick came to my rescue.”

“Foxes trying to run boy down; they no
draw blood till him sink/exhausted on the
snow.”

“And this is why you laughed l”

Notek smiled and nodded.

“ 'Well, I forgive you,” said Ned.

 

CHAPTER VI.
RIDING LEVIATHAN.

IT was now near the siding of August,land
in the natural course of things as they exist in
‘the for North, winter would soon set in. The

sea through which the boy Whalers had been
carried by the floatino‘ berg was now almost en-
tirely closed; by clim ing the snowy cliffs far
above the bulk, they could see open water a
long distance to the south, but it was dotted
with icebergs which would soon form a. com-
pact mass and hide the sea from sight.

Toward the north the sight was less cheering,
for hummocks, bergs and does met the vision.
Ned and Dick Could believe that they found the
pathway to the pole, and that With a. good
team of dogs and a sledge, they could traverse
the dreary distance and accomplish the feat of

lauting a. human foot directly under the North

tar. But the do a were not to be had, and
Netek did not turn is attention to the manu-
facture of whips and lines.

For sometime Ned could not be made to
believe that the foxes intended to run him down
before attacking him, but Netek who knew
them well ersisted in his assertion,»and the
young wha. or at last took his statements for
granted, greatly to the Innuit’s satisfaction.

The lost Nantucketians kept a daily record in
the log which Christian Olanson had left
behind. There were a few blank leaves in the
old book, and these served their purpose very
well. Dick, who had learned how to take
observations now, found much to do in this
field, and with the scientific instruments left
behind, daily Observances were bad, and the
result carefully jotted down. V

Every da one of the three would ascend to
the observa ry established on one of the clifls,
and look. southward upon the gradually closing
sea. Day by day the expanse of water essened,
until a spot that seemed no bigger than a flag
remained.

This _open water a paned to be ten miles
from the brig, and etek one day roposed a
journey to it for he had seen a who. 6 spout in
its midst.

This chance for supplying themselves with
oil and meat before the winter set in was not to
be thrown away, and the trio set out over the
ice with their faces turned toward the open
water. They dragged the Belle’s whale-boat
after them by means of ropes attached to bear-
skin shoulder-belts, and, as the ice was com-
paratively level, they made cod progress.
The three looked grotesque in their huge
jumper-hoods, bear-skin boots which reached
alm0st to their waists, and with fox-tails in
their months. This last adornment may pro-
voke the reader’s smile; but let me say here
that every part of the wild animals of the
arctic circle is put tunes by man. A fox~tail
between one’s teeth on a. cold day keeps the
cold’ from one’s nose, and warms his cheeks to a
degree that is astonishing.

Besides furnishing Ned and Dick with suits,
the skins of the two polars killed on shipboard
had produced long arpoon linbs: these had
been tested in the Oscar’s cabin, and Netek was
thoroughly satisfied with the experiment.

Fortunately for comfort, the whale-hunters
had the polar breeze at their backs; while it
was cold, it could not pierce their heavy cloth-
ing, although the thermometer marked twenty-
nlne degrees when they act out from the ship.

A long line of h-ummock ice bordered the
open water, but the boys dragged their boat
over it with greatdifilculty. and throw off their
strange traces on the rim of the sea.

Be ore them lay a sheet of comparatively
open water, almost a mile square: from the
look-out it had appeared no ion r than a
ship’s flag. The waves had a. pecu iar motion

 

to the south, and broke With a cold murmur

 

against the pieces of ice which they wore song
stantly encountering. ‘

“ I see no whales!” said Dick disappointedly
after/a brief survey of the cheerless prospect
before them. “ Netek must have mistaken the
splashi’ngs made by a falling berg for a whale’s
spout.’ ‘

“ No, no, Dick,” was the Esquimaux’s quick
reply. “ thek see more than one whale in the‘
cold seas."

“That may be,ibut—”

The boy whaler did not conclude his sentence, ,

for suddenly from the middle 'of the open water
rose the huge back of a submarine monster, and
a column of water was thrown Skyward.

“A whale! a whale!” exclaimed Nod as the
Innuit turned u on him with a look of triumph
in his eyes. “ he boat—quick! Let us give
him chase!” , V

The next minute the whale—boat rode the
waters, and the enthusiastic youths pulled
rafijdly toward leviathan.

ed and Dick forgot in the excitement of the
moment their lost whale chase, but ere long it-
flashed across their minds at the same instant,
and whitened their cheeks as they exchanged
looks that spoke volumes. thet if the present
adventure was to have a similar ending?

Netek stood erect in the stem of the boat,

harpoon in hand, and with his eyes fixed on the
water ahead. After blowing, the whale had
disappeared, but the Innuit’s experience with
the monarch of the Northern seas told him that
somewhere not far from the spot of his first
spouting, he would soon rise to the surface a in.

All at once the fur—boy uttered a about 0 dis-
covery, and pointed to What appeared a black

log lying on the surface of the sea a few rods to .

leeward. Ned and Dick bent vigorously to their
ours, and Netek made 1115 harpoon ready for a

cast.
Suddenly the whale-boat shot alongside the
huge creature, .who seemed to invite attack,

and the Innuit’s spear whizzed through the air. ,

The whale took the keen weapon just above
one of his great flippers, and instantly started
off, drawing both line and boat after him. He
manifested no desire to sink to the depths of the

sea. until Netek drove a second harpoon deep.

beneath his skin, and drew forth a 'spout of
blood that instantly crimsoned the surrounding
water. Then the gigantic monster plun ed be—
neath the surface, and pulled the who shoal:
through the waters at a speed that was danger—
ous. .

No oars were needed now. The boy Whalers
had cast themselves upon the bottom of the
craft and were holding to the gunwale for life.
Clouds of spray were falling constantly upon
their garments, gradually drenching them, and
rendering them as heavy as leaden armor. .

On, on with Netek standin fearless in the
prow with a third harpoon in h 9 hands.

Would leviathan never stop?

“ Cut the lines!” sudden] cried Ned to Dick.
“This adventure will end in the death of all in
another minute l”

Dick seized a hatchet that lay near, and was
about to sever the re s when one of Netek’s
feet descended u n is wrist, and eir eyes
met. The Innuits look was a comma d to let
the ropes remain uncut, but Dick raised the
hatchet for all that.

“Whale coming up now,” announced Netek.
“ He will take the third harpoon and die!" .

Dick held back the blow which would have
freed them from the sen-monster, and New;
launched the third harpoon With his old-time
accuracy.

“ Hurrah!” cried the Nantucket boys, as the
weapon stuck.

It was evident that the whale was mortally
wounded, for he threw a column of mingled
blood and water from his nostrils, and turned
completely around after being‘struck by the
barpoon.

“Look out! we’ve roused his ire!” exolaimed
Dick, starting hack. “Heavens! the monster is
making for us!”

At that moment the fish disappeared, and the
next somethiu grated along the bottom of the
boat, and the eye were thrown headlong into
the seal

Dick alighted on semething that whs moving
swiftly through the water, and his hands came
in contact with an ob'ect, which be instantly
grasped. It was one o the lines, and he was on
the whale’s back! Netek and Ned he saw clin -
ing to the boat, which they were trying to rigf t
dos its the fact that it was being drag-god“ t-
ly n the wake of the whale.

But the imperiled boy had to look to his own I

safety.
If he whale should seek deep water he would

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undoubted] be dragged after him for‘to his
horror, Dick had discovered that ’one'of the
lines had quitted the boat and encircled his

bod . .

“yAh! we’ve got her right at last!” exclaimed
Ned, as the whale-boat was propeigy seated on
the waves once more, and he and I etek began
to gather up the oars which forethought had
secured to the oarlocks by means of stout bear-
skin ropes ,

The pair scrambled into the boat Without
ceremony, and turned toward their less fortu-
nate com anion. '

“ My GEM!” fell from Ned’s ll 5 as he reeled
away. “Look, Netekl Dick-—— ick is lost!”

He hid his face in his hands and ended his
sentence with a groan, while the Innuit stared
ahead and said nothing.

Dick and the whale were fast disappearing!

 

CHAPTER VII.
THE HIGHWAY TO THE POLE!

THIS had happenedzv Dick had severed as be
thought with his belt-knife the line which fas-
tened him to the whale when, in reality, he had
cut the boat loose from the leviathan! .

An instant later, before ,he could extricate
himself from danger, the huge fish dived and
carried him beneath the surface. Dick’s senses
seemed to desert him as he was plunged be-
neath the icy element, and he gave himself up
for lost. 'He did not know that death was to
become his rescuer.

The last dive for deep soundings was the
whale’s final effort. .A. few seconds afterward
the huge carcass reappeared‘on the surface and
a stream of dark-colored blood was thrown
spasmodically from the lungs.

Dick came up with the dying fish. but uncon-
scious and still in the toils of the bear-skin rope.
A shout which he did not hear greeted his re-
appearance, and the whale-boat shot toward
him. Ned’s knife released him from the cord,
and, with Netek’s help, he was dragged from
the sea.

Meanwhile, the whale was lashing the water
in his dying struggles which momentaril grew
weaker. All at once the monster turne com—
pletely over and lay belly upward on the sur-
face. One of the bafipoons still adhered to the
carcass, to which etek leaped with great
agility, and sent up a shout of victory!

The fish was discovered to be a young whale,
but almost flfty»flve feet in length, and in a
condition that would have delighted the hunters
of the deep.

Dick was slow to recover from his immersion,
for he had taken a good deal of salt water into
, and the lines had out almost through
his thic garments. The party’s adventure had
taken them toward the ice where the had em-
barked, and it was decided to tow t e carcass
to that point and anchor it there until certain
implements for “ cuttin up" could be brought
from the brig. The owing operation was
found to beno easy task, but by dint of hard
labor. it was accomplished, and the prize safely
anchored in a little cove at the foot of a berg
which effectually protected it from the northern
wind.

No sooner was the whale thus secured, than
there came leaping over the nearest ack-icea
troop of what appeared to be arctic wolves.
They numbered a score or more, and wene ag-
gressive in their demeanor. .

“We’ve ot to fight for our whale !” ex-
claimed Ne picking up an oar-blade, and turn-
n the band. “No surrender
to the wolves of the North Sea! Let us show
them, Dick that old Nantucket has sent stout
arms into the shadow of the Pole!”

But the animals did not attack the three
boys; the carcass of the whale was their ob-
ject, and undaunted by the young vwhalers’
show of resistance, they gained their objective
and began to attack.

“ They’re dogs. not wolves!” cried Dick.

“ Esquimanx sled dogs at that!” responded
Ned almost at the same time. .

Netek uttered a strange Innuit shout and
sprung among the animals which be scattered
right and left with the oar-blade. But they re-
turned to the whale and began. to tear again.
.for they were gaunt and famine-pressed, and
greatly resembled wolves.

“Dogs eat, then: whale enough for all !” said
Netek falling back to where Ned and Dick
stood and stared at the ravenous beasts.

, The animals were no longer molested, but
rmitted to go:- themselves on the can
case 0 the north m w ale which they  with
a greed that was di 'n . Some of the dogs,
bore marks of harness on air bodies, and not

I

 

a few ears had been split by the keen Esqui-
maux whip. ., ,

Having satisfied their hunger, the dogs fell
back from the torn carcass and came up to the
boys at Netek’s peculiar call.

‘Look here!” exclaimed Ned as he found a
leather collar about the neck of one dog who
mi ht have been a leader in a sledge train.
“ ere are letters cut into this collar. If we
could but read them—”

“ We will master them Ned.”

The Nantucket boys bent over the collars,
and tried to master the inscription, a task not
easy of accomplishment.

‘ I have it.’ suddenly cried Dick. “These
are the dogs that carried Christian Olanson
from the Gear many months ago. The Dan-
ish sailors have perished and the dogs have
since been running wild. Here are the Words:
‘Ch. Olanson: Oscar.’ These three words tell
the tale for me.” _

“ Ah! Dick, if

“ It must be true!” said Ned.
these poor do 5 could talk!”

“The shal do more than that,” was the
cheerfu reply. “Providence has sent them to
us to get us away from this region. We ,will
tame and utilize them; then we will make a
dash for home !” .

Ned gave vent to an expression of joy.

Netek was certain that the dogs had be—
longed to Olanson’s team. The Danish sailors
had undoubtedly perished in attempting to
reach Tasnavik the nearest settlement, one
hundred miles distant. Instinct had guided
the dogs back to old whale and walrus grounds;
but famine had nearly finished them.

The three boys now looked at the bright side
of affairs again. The Esquimaux dog accus-
toms himsel to a change of masters with much
ease, and, so long as he has enough to eat, he is
content. '

The entire party, dogs and all, returned to
the Oscar. The boys were anxious to dry their
garments which had stiffened on their bodies,

as well as to secure the great flaZin and cut-
ting knives with which the old ul was pro—
vided. The dogs trotted leisure! behind, and

hailed the first appearance of t e dismantled
Whaler with a series of joyful barks. This es-
tablished their identity and when once on
board they ran to their old quarters and made
themselves at home.

All through the long arctic day, the process
of cutting up the whale went on. Netek’s deft
fingers had constructed passable harness out of
o] rope and hear strips, and the dogs fell back
to their old avocation with no growling. ’

“When will we quit the old hulk?" suddenly
asked Ned. “The presence of these dogs in-
spires me with hope.”

“ I‘dvy-antby,” answered the Innuit.

“ by not tomorrow?"

“ Must get ready first.”

“ I am ready now!” '

Netek looked at Ned for a moment, and then
swept their surroundings with .his eye.

“ understand you,” said the boy Whaler.
“We must not face the dangers of the white
north unprepared."

“Ned right,” the Innuit replied, and Dick,
W130 stood near, said in a low tone to his com—
ra e:

“ We must trust much to Netek’s jud ment.
Without him we would have perishe long

er words than these were never spoken.

'Much of the carcass of the whale was on
board the hulk when the northern night came
on .again, and, surrounded by the dogs, the trio
enJo ed a supper of frozen bear—meat and
bliib er.

All at once, in the midst of the repast, the
vessel seemed to sink, amid a crash that
threatened to displace every timber as she went
down. .

The young arctic Crusoes sprung up and
with the frightened dogs at their heels, bounded
upon deck. An awful sight met their gaze.
All around them were masses of heaving and
tossmg ice, and rocking bergs. The ship had
actually settled, for, instead of resting high and
dry upon the ice where she had lain for months,
she was in the midst of open water. In a flash,
as it were the Whole scene had been changed;
some sudden convulsions beneath the ice had
crushed the bergs and hammocks, and sent the
table ice in tw am on ever hand. 1

Far to the north merri y danced the lights 0
the aurora borealis: the long arrows of match-
less beauty shot zenithward, forming a spectacle
upon which at any other moment the Nantucket
boys would have been delighted to gate. But
now danger—death awaited them. On then
right to leeward, and there only, W88 firm ice‘

/

 

and while thin-oar of the arctic earthquake still
continued, the Oscar shook and waned 
a shipabout to go to pieces. The horrifying
soun

added to'the terror of the hour.

“ We must leave the old shell or go down in
her!” cried Ned. “ We shall rely on the dogs
for safety.”

As the Whaler became comparatively quiet
fin the waves, the ' trio prepared to abandon

er.

A large supply of whale and bear-meat was
landed safely on the firm ice, and the fire-arms
and ammunition quickly followed. The boys
worked with all their might, for every moment
was precious time. They could feel the old
hulk gradually settling—going down into the
fathomless depths of an arctic sea.

At last the removal was finished, and Dick
Mizzen was about to express his [thanks for
their safet , when, with a tremendous lurch to
leeward, t 6 Oscar disappeared. -*

“ What might have been our tomb is nobody7s,
thank fortune!” ejaculated Ned as the ,white
sail which they had fastened to the top of the
mainmast was buried from their sight in the
deep. “We have been thrown upon new re-
sources which may fail us in the hour of need.”

“ I intend to cross the river when I reach it;
not before!” replied Dick who seemed to
possess that cheerfulness which Ned “had owned
until lately.

The provisions and fire—arms were stowed
awa in the bottom of the whale-boat, to which
Nete had fitted a rude pair of runners during
the day, and, having harnessed the willingdogs
to the improvised sledge, the Innuit cracked his
whip over their heads and away they went!

On any other occasion the exciting journey
would have filled Ned Manly and Dick Mimn
with enthusiasm; but now, with a tossing sea
behind them, and miles and miles of ice before,
their thoughts kept them alive to the dark tints
of the picture fate had drawn for them. V.

Netek’s face, or that small part of it visible
between the closely drawn edges of his umper-
hood, was impassive and imreadable. kept
the dogs in a straight line by occasional glances
at a certain star near the far-olf'horizon.

“ We seem to be on the main~land,” said Ned.

“ No; it is only ice—the sea is beneath us, the
same treacherous element that ingulfed the
Belle and the Oscar!” ,
- “I can not think this, Dick. We have been
traveling more than four hours from our
of departure. I will question Netek.”

Ned was in the act of touching Netek’s arm
for the purpose of getting. his attention, when.
he sprung up and with a. ,loud cry began to
pull the dogs back. r

“ What as happened?” asked the American
boys in a breath as the leaped to their feet.

“Water ahead!” sai Netek.

A glance was enough! ~

The flight for life had terminated after four
hours’ journey at the brink of what appeared to
be an open polar sea! r ,

Not a ripple disturbed the surface of 'the how,

deep, and aside from its icy shores, it looked like ,.

a lake asleep in the starlight. .

“ We are not helpless,” said Dick after looking
awhile. “ We have oars and sails, and we can
cross that sheet of water!” ,

“No crossing that, brother,” said Netek. “ It
extends to the place which the white men have
sought so lon ." '

“ To the Po e!” cried the boys.

Dick leaped from the whale—boat and ran to
the edge of the ice. For a moment he forgot

their situation, for he knelt down and scooped ‘

some of the cold water up in his hand and car-
ried it to his lips. '

“ It isn’t every American who can drink‘ the
water of this famous sea!” lie exclaimed.
harness the dogs and launch the boat, Ned and
Netek! We stand in the pathway to the Pole l"

Ned’s answer was a faint smile, and the Esqui-
maux shook his head. ,

CHAPTER VIII. '
DOG AND BEAR. -
DICK’S enthusiasm was short-lived, for the
desperate strait in which all were, speedilz
forced itself upon his mind, and he came’bac

 

to the boat—sled, with his feathers considerably

cut. ‘. ‘
His proposition to launch the boat on the 0
sea was the hight of folly, as Netek told himin a
few words. and the journey was again reamed,
but nice the shore. They were now traveling
westwa with the still brilliant aurora on their

n Un_l ‘

right. Netek was in hopes that they were out -

ninsula or ice-belt, whose northern boundary
‘- ey hadtoundatthesea; and all hunted that

of water rushing in at a hundred seams _

place

 

 

 

 

 

 
  

i

they would soon strike the mainland where they

« would be safe from being destroyed by any ac-

cident similar to the one which had finished the

ad forgot his situation in sleep under the
heaving covers which they had carried from the
Oscar, and Dick was fast succumbing to the
drowsy god. Netek alone was wide awake. The
biting weather seemed to-add a new sparkle to

' his eyes, and he looked like a miniature Santa

Claus whenever he stood upright in the whale-
boat, and cracked the long whip over the heads
of the dogs.

The line of travel along the coast was not
bad for a highway of ice and snow: but little

V ‘ belt-ice interfered with the speed of the team,

‘and the two boys, who were now asleep, ex-
perienced but few uncomfortable jars.
Suddenly Netek checked the dogs and cast a

v furtive glance down upon his companions. He

had evidently heard a noise which has a mean-
ing for the Esquimaux. for he leaned over the
gunwale of the boat and held his ear close to
the ice.
. When he rose he slilplped quietly to the ground
and drew one of the arston rifles from under
cover.’ Another glance at the boys, and he
glided away toward the sea. The dogs did not
object to the rest thus afforded, for some throw
themselves on the snow and prepared to sleep.
Netek took none with him, as though he felt
capable of contending alone with the game that
had roused him.

A few minutes later the clear report of the
Marston awoke the echoes of the arctic night,
and the figure of the Innuit leaped up from be~
hind a snow-hes. and bounded forward to
where a large sea was trying to ct back into
the water. Netek’s ear had not eceived him,
and he came presently to the struggling animal,
at which he fearlessly sprung, knife in hand.

At that very moment the whole dog team
started forward with a series of sharp, eager
yelps. Ned and Dick, jerked from pleasant
slumbeis by the motion of the boat, found
themselves flying over the snow at a dizzy rate
of speed! The lines were scraping the ground
and out of their reach, as the team strained
evasiiy energy to reach some animal apparently

"in ht.
’ “ Where’s Netekl” gasped Dick.

u

 

\

’5', I

 

 

 

“No difference where! We must attend to
ourselves now. Our team is running off!” and
Ned‘ recovered the lines by means of a boat-
hook, and grasped them firmly and pulled back

I ‘~ with all his might.

But he Could not check the crazy team.

“Help me, Dick!” :

Dick did not have to be appealed to twice,
.i‘or his hands were already at Ned’s, and the
two pulled and. see—sawed, but all to no pur-

pose.

. ‘5 What’s ahead? I see nothing,” said Ned.
“Ha! I do—a bear! He’s on the run, going

'over the ice at the top of his speed. Cut the

‘ dogs loose and let them fight it out.”

And he left here without help?” exclaimed
Dick. ‘.‘ N01 we must sta with he team; our
safety lies in doing this. cu forget, Ned, that
Netek has abandoned us.”

. “Not for good. I cannot think that. The
Innuit will turn up again.”

Demonism seemed to possess the dogs, and to -

add to‘ the boys’ misfortune, their lines snaplped
with a whip-like crack in the frosty air! his
new release lent additional speed tothe scud—
ding beat; it hard] seemed to touch the snow
so swiftly did the ogs pull it over the smooth
surface.

“Fortune save us now l" ejaculated Ned, drop-
ping upon the blankets to help hold the con-
tents of, the whale-boat to their laces. “ If
nothing will stop the dogs but the ear, I hope
him» will stop and show fight.”

They could now see the gaunt polar slouching
along a short distance ahead of the wild team.
If the dogs had been unharnessed they would
have reached him long before, but the boat and
its contents weighed six hundred pounds, and
impeded their progress.

‘ We’re gaining on him now!” ,cried Ned.
“ The old fellow sees that a battle is inevitable.

’\ 'He might avoid it by seeking the coast and
plan 'ng into the sea.”

“ trust he will not. Our team is brainless
enough to follow him even there,” was the
reply: "There! he has turned and offers bat-
tle!’

This was true.

As if resolved to run no further the polar
which had been roused from a bed in the snow
b the crack of Netek’s rifle, had, whirled upon

 

The  Boy Whalers

Mai-stone from the bottom of the boat. Ned
stood up for the purpose of shootin over the
beads of the team, but was immediate y thrown
down by the lurching of the boat to one side.

As the dogs neared the hear he rose on his
hinder feet and invited combat.

, “ What a shot l”vcried Dick as he let fly at the
huge target in the moonlight twenty yards
away. / .

The white monster seemed to reel as if struck
in the breast, but whether he went to the
ground.or not from the effects of the shot, the
castaways could not tell, for the following
second regardless of consequences, the entire
team threw themselves upon him!

Bear and dogs became an indistinguishable
mass. Seeing their danger, the boy Whalers
drew their belt-knives and leaned over to cut
the lines that lashed the team to the boat, but
their action overbalanced the craft and they
with everything in it were dumped into the
snow!

Bruin fought with the ferocity of his nature;
but the dogs attacked him from every side, and
inflicted terrible wounds with their long sharp
teeth. Etah, the noble leader of the team, was
disemboweled by a stroke, and cast aside to die
in great agony, and three otherdogs speedily
shared his fate. Entangled in the harness and
impeded by the boat and lines, the dogs could
not fight with much prospect of success, and
the polar was gaining the victory, when the
boys scrambled to their feet from the boat’s
overturned cargo. ,

Ned seized the first thing; that touched his
hand—a long walrus lance whose handle was a
narwhal’s task—and, eager to help the dogs,
now their sole dependence in the polar land, be
rushed forward to take ahand in the fight.

The bear seemed to divine his intention. for
he suddenly threw the struggling Esquimaux
dogs from him, and rose to meet the boy. Ned
did not stop but plunged strai ht forward
with the lance at a “charge,” an as the dogs
closed on the bear again, he drove the iron be-
neath hide and sinew!

Backward staggered bruiu, tearing the lance
from Ned’s hands, and, dragging it with him,
fell heavily on the snow! ‘

The dogs threw themselves upon their fallen
foe onlyto meet the sharpest claws that ever
tore a seal’s throat. The hear was by no means
hors du combat.

Fortunately for the dogs which seemed de-
termined to secure their own destruction, Dick
came forward with a reloaded Marston, and at
the first opportunity sent his bullet crashing
throliégh the monster’s skull. ‘

“ ow whip the brutes of! and save what lit-
tle Iharness we can!” said Dick as he stepped
bac .

This was no easy job, but Ned accomplished
it by dint of blows with the stock of his lance.
The harness was found to be in apitiable plight,
and the hearts of the boys sunk within them
when they looked upon it and the boat’s late
cargo, and wondered what had become of
Netek. '

If the Esquimaux had not willfully deserted
them, had he heard the gunshots, and would
he come to their assistance?

The dogs were permitted to gorge themselves
on the lar While the boy Whalers tried to
ri ht things, but it seemed an endless task.

n the midst of it the report of a rifle was
heard, and a shout came from among the hum-
mocks near the coast.

Ned and Dick answered with loud whoops.

It was Netek, the Innuit.

CHAPTER 'IX.
THE PEEIL or EGG-GATHERING.

THE young Esquimaux reported that he had
shota large female seal, and then helped the
two boys to right the boat and mend the broken
harness. ;While thus engaged, the little party
suddenly felt a change In the- atmosphere.
Ned flew to the thermometer which he examin-
ed in the moonlight, and found it rising repidly.

,“ Snow !" said Note]: significantly.

“Just as if one is needed here,” answered
Dick with a smile.

The Innuit now hurried forward the work
before‘ them, as if a new catastrophe was not
far away. The dogs no longer licked the
wounds inflicted by the bear, but turned their
long noses to the‘uorth, and snuffed the air
with signs of fear.

They sprung eagerly to the mended traces at,
Netek’s call, and once more the boat on run—
ners was flying over the snow.

“What is coming?” asked Ned who noticed

, pursuers. etheE uima’ux’s anxiet.
' Instinctivelyathe boy, Whalers took their sq y

“Boys see pretty soon.”

 

The aurora had disappeared, and the northern
heavens were new dark and threatenin .
the thermometer had risen to 22 the win was
cold and piercing and the Party had not pro‘
ceeded far before line partic es 0 snow touched
the faces of the anxious American boys.

“ An arctic hurricane is about to burst upon
us!” exclaimed Ned. “ We shall be snowed

under forever if we are compelled to traverse

this shelterless ice—field.”

He had scarcely. ceased when Netck turned
the dog team to the ri ht, and began to urge
them a ong the base 0 a glacier which until
that moment Ned and Dick had not seen.

“Netek is going to at to leeward of this ice
mountain,” remarke Dick who seemed to
diviné‘tho Innuit’s intention. “It is our only

he I”

The dog-driver said nothing, but continued to
hurry the team forward at the top of its speed.
The cracks of his lengthy whip rung out like
pistol-shots upon the frosty air, and the faith-
ful dogs strained every nerve as they dashed
along.

All at once the storm burst with tenfold fury
upon this scene: the, wind, in a moment, as it
were, changed to a gale, and Ned started back
with a cry and declared that the glacier had
cracked over their heads. Dick was ready to
believe anything, for they could scarcely see

their hands before their faces, for the snow.

that came down like blank-ts of white.

In another moment their pacgress under the
overhanging cliffs of the glacier would have be-
come impeded, if Netek had not halted and
lea d from the boat. The dogs sprung aside
an crept into what appeared a dark cavern
with signs of delight, and the boat was soon
dragged after them by the boys.

The shelter was not exactly a cave, but a
hollow at the base of the glacier. It was well
protected from the wind, and but little snow
could enter the place. The arctic Crusoes had
reached it not a moment too soon, for if it had
not existed where it did they‘would have been
buried in the drifts already forming over the
storm -swept ice; but, as it was, they were
comparatively comfortable, and made a meal
on frozen bear-meat and blubber. Satisfied
with their shelter, the dogs fell asleep, but the
trio did not follow their example. Netek be-
came quite jovial and narrated a number of

‘legends of the cold land. Despite their lonel

and almost hopeless situation, Ned and Die
listened with much interest. The wind nolonger
seemed to shake their shelter, and as the snow
piled itself before the hollow in the glacier,
their bed grew warmer until Dick declared that
he would soon be compelled to dispense with
his jumper-hood. .

For several hours the storm ra ed with undi-
minisbed fury. When the first] came, Dick
Miuen sprung up with a startling cry and
leaned out of the shelter and listened.

“ I heard a human voice,” said the boy. “ It
came from toward the sea.” /

“ It cannot be,” said Ned, incredulously.
“ We are the only people out to—nigbt inthis
terrible land.” r

“ Would to Heaven I could believe you, Ned,
but—’ There! you must have hear it that
timel’

“I did, Dick. It was a child’s voice. Netekl”

The young Innuit was on his feet at the boy’s

right. _ ‘ '
‘You heard the cry—the wail?” said Dick,
turning upon him. '

“ N etek heard the cry of the young seal."

. “What?” ’

“ The baby seal cries like an Innuit pappoose
sometimes.”

“That sound a seal’s cry?” said Dick. “You
must be mistaken, Netek."

“ Niwnoo killing seal out there.” And the
speaker pointed toward the coast. _

The boy Whalers were compelled to be satis-
fled with Netek’s explanation of the cry, al-
though Dick shook his head in doubt and pon—
dered over it a long time.

Night in the arctic regions is not a pleasant
thought for any one. especially for those who
are compelled to endure it. \For many their
last sleep has followed drowsmess, and the bones
of hundreds lie beneath the snow and ice of the
polar lands.

But the roximity of the dogs and their warm
bodies, ad ed to the heavy covers brought from
the Oscar, aided the trio inpassmg a comforta-
ble night. They were entirel sheltered from
the mud by the immense g acier, whose tog
seemed to touch the coldly shining stars, an
the snow-bank which nature fled in rent pf
their retreat, k t out the col which es life
in the arctic circ e. ’

 

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What a cheerlels respect the morning pre-
lentedl .Snow ev Iasthma, and a stiff wind
laden With fine else of snow blewi from
the sea. Ned stepped from the one and ooked
up at the glacier. A part of it fairly littered
in the t, and its icy peaks sparkled 'ke real
It was not all ice, for here and
there cropped out strangecolored stone, and
eVerywhere flew multitudes of birds which

med attached to the cliffs.

“Eggs for breakfast if we could get them I”
exclaimed Ned. “ Those birds, or at least many
of them, are auks and cider ducks, and the c!.fl‘s
up onder are their homes."

etek confirmed Ned’s words, and eyed the
birds for a while with a covetous gaze.

The most adventurous explorers in the far
North have found the elder duck and am; in
great numbers wherever they have pitched their
tents. The young of the auk are considered a
great delicac by the Esqnimaux and the eggs
of the elder uck have cost many a hungry In-
nuit his life.

To scale the ice-covered cliffs above the
young adventurers was a. task from which
the bravest would have shrunk; but led on by
Netek, who had resolved on a change of food,
the young Crusoes rushed to the base of the
mountain. . .

Their boat-hooks now stood ‘them in good
need, and step by step the scaled the cliffs.

The numbers of the bir s seemed to increase
as they neared the giddy hights, and when
the three halted at last on a. lofty table-land
that commanded a grand view of the white
panorama many feet beneath, the rich plumage
of the elder duck was distinguishable. The birds
in all probability had never seen a human being
before, for they flew quite near the boys. and
N etek knocked down several auks with his boat-
hook.

Under the jutting crags of the mountain of
stone and ice, the birds had their nests in the
inaccessible walls. There were the eg 5 so
valued by the arctic e icure, and the two an-
tucket boys despaire of the breakfast they

' had resolved upon when they leaned over the

precipice and looked down the steep sides.

“Nete’k go down and get eggs,” said the
Innuit as he proceeded to fasten a strong rope
around his body under his arms.

“ What if the rope should break!” cried Ned.
“l’Ve can’t spare you, Nstek.”

“ Rope no break if brothers hold Netck.”

“ We can do that, but—”

“ Here! hold rope, then,” and tho Innuit
tossed one end of the bear-skin cord to his com-
panions, as he stepped to the brink of the crag.

With the movements of an old egg-hunter,
Notch lowered himself over the shiny edge,
and soon disappeared from the boys’ gaze.
'The cord slipped slowly through their
fingers and let the Esquimaux down to the
nests.‘ They knew that he would swing his
body inward toward the nes's, and, despite
the cries of the parent birds, help himself to the

e ..
ggliell braced on the rough ice above, Ned and
Dick clung to the rope.

Now and then they turned their gaze to the
landscape far away to the south, and Dick
whose mind could not remain long from the

n sea they had discovered, glanced many
times over his shoulder as though he could see
its waters so far away. _ . '

All at once the cry of “A ship! a ship!”
burst from Ned’s throat.

“Where?” asked Dick excited
stant.

“ Yonder—in the sky—not among the ice!”
.Dick Mizmn uttered an exclamation of sur—
rise as he looked in the direction indicated by

Eis comrade’s 8818- and saw a vessel suspended
apparently in the heavens! _ .,
‘An apparitionl—a demon ship!” he almost
sped, and forgetful of the dark—skinned egg-
filamter, he started from the rope.

The next instant a startling shriek came up
from below, and Ned was dragged to the very
brink of the precipice. . '

Dick realized the situation in ‘a moment, and
Ned relinquished the rope in time to prevent
being ul!ed over the precipice and dashed
to dough in the ice gorges hundreds of feet
below!

The hey whalers stood Speechless and ghastly
on the cragn They felt that Netek had fallen
to a terrible fate far beneath the bird nests, and
they could not summon courage enough to look
over tlie brink.

Suddenly a faintcry came up from below.

“Help Netek, white brothersl—help 1"

“Thank Heaven I” ejaculated Dick as he
sprung forward.

in an in-

 

l

He threw himself upon the snow and leaned
,over the fringe of the crag. I ‘

What did he see? I .

Many feet beneath him and far beyond the
stretch of his arm clung Netek, the Innuit,
holding to the edges of the nest-holes in the
mo ! ,

“ Rope break, brother!” said the Esquimaux
on catching sight of Dick’s face. “Throw
down the seal-line at your belt, and Netek Will
fasten it to the rope around his body.”

“ He cannot do that and cling to the nests!”
murmured Dick. “It Was all my fault; I was
frightened by the ship in the sky I”

As he spoke he rose and began to uncoil a
Exile which seal-hunters often wear at their

sits.

 

CHAPTER X.
“ TO THE NORTH POLEl”

NETEK clung bravely to his insecure support.
The rocks Were cold, but his heavy seal-skin
mittens prevented his hands from slipping be-
numbed from the nests.

Dick uncoiled his seal-line, and at last let it
down over the crag. Then he swung it bark
and forth until it came within reach of the
young Esquiinaux’s arm, when he suddenly
seized it, and thrust it between his teeth. Netek
next slowly drew up the rope which dangled
beneath him, and fastened the seal-line to one
end of it. All this with one hand and his teeth,
while he dangled over the precipice, at the bot”—
tom of whfch was the most dreadful of deaths.

We need not say that Ned and Dick held their
breath while the young Innuit worked, nor that
they sprung eagerly to work when he told them
to pull up the sealvline. Thank fortune! the
bear-rope came along, and a cry of thankful—
ness burst from their throats when they grasped
it again.

“Pu!!!” cried Dick, overjoyed. “ I believe I
could drag a musk-ox up from below!” and he
and Ned exerted themselves to haul Netek up
to safety.

Loud was the shout that rung out on the clear
air as the Innuit’s hood appeared over the edge
of the precipice, and then he drew himself up
by his hands. .

“Rope just as long as ever!” he said to the

ovs.

"Of course it is, Notek. It was my fault.
Lookkyonder!” and Dick pointed to the ship in
the s y.

The egg-hunter gazed at the strange spectacle
with mingled surprise and superstition.

“I might have known that it is a mirage,”
continued Dick; “ but the spectacle startled
me especially after Ned’s or of ‘ a ship!’ ”

‘ What make it?" queried . etek.

“ A ship is somewhere in this region, my boy,
and unequal refraction in the air far below us
apparently suspends her up yonder. I remem-
ber once, when we were whaling OR the
Labrador banks, we saw the mir e, of a whole
fleet of fishermen, and could distinguish ships
rhicg had sailed from Nantucket months he

ore.

Dick’s explanation did not enlighten the Es-
quimaux boy, who continued to stare at the
apparition in the heavens, until Ned called his
attention from it by askingawhether he had
found any eggs when the ted accident oc-
curred.

_“Netek always find eggs!” he exclaimed,
diving his hand beneath his. deer-skin coat, and
producing several beautiful specimens. !

Theeggs-Were about three inches long by two
broad, and of a light green color.

“Are there man there, Netrk?” asked Ned.

“ More than mybrother would count in many
years!” was the reply.

“ We’ll conclude. then, that the eggs are
plentiful.” smiled Ned. “Kane and his men
once‘gathered them at the rate of twelve hun-
dred 8' dal’. We could probably do better than
that. But let us go down to breakfast.”

” £70: efat here just as well.” ted l t

pre or m e s cooked—r as at eas ,
Netek,” said degg o

The. Inuuit jerked off his jumper-hood, and,

the boys saw a large quantity of beautiful green
moss-in it. The elder duck constructs her nest
of this valuable production of the arctic re-
gions. and Netek had robbed the nests of their
rich bedding as well as of their food.

A Space W85 speedily cleared on the crag, the
moss ignited, and the eggs put into the fire to
roast. In a few minutes the lovely green shells
cracked, and the boy Crusoes enjoyed the rich-
est and most palatable breakfast they had
fasted for many a day. The absence of pepper

‘ apd salt was felt, of course, but the adventurers
did not let that want destroy their mash

\

 

. . , . . _

“ Now let's locate the sh? before we descend,”
Ned said, rising refresh from his last
“From what I know of mirages, the real eh
lies somewhere in the north.” ‘

“ In the open polar seal" exclaimed Dick. .

“ I do not know about that. How far are In
from the open water, Netek?” ~

The Innuit thought a moment and then held
up both hands with fingers Wide apart.

“ Ten miles,” said Dick.

“ Esquimaux miles; recollect that,” replied
Ned who went on: “ Ten miles to the rest
northern sea, you say, Netek? You have
there?” I

“ Often, brother.”

“Did you ever see a white man’s ship on its

waters?’
f 5 0 ’1

8. L
“Listen!” cried Dick. “There is an Open! “

Polar Sea! We have discovered it, and Netek
says that a white man’s ship has been seen upon
it. People laughed at Captain Hayes when he
came back and said he had gazed upon its

waters from the top of a berg. Ned, we shall ‘

never regret the accident that abandoned us to
the mercies of the Arctic Oceans!”

“Silence!” almost sternly commanded Ned
Manly, who turned to Netek again. “ Tell me
about that ship. ”

“Netek wasn’t born where. the big open
water is, brother; but he went to it lon ago
with some lnizuit fishermen, and they al saw
the white man’s ship near the shore. It was a
ship unlike any that Netek ever saw before. It
had seal-skin sails and a great dragon rode in
front of it.”

“ A Northman’s ship!" ejaculated Dick. “ You
know, Ned, that nothing ever decays in this.
part of the world. I noticed some striking pe-
culiarity about the miraged vessel. She has
shifted her course, and we see her reflection no
lon er What if we should discover a ship
buifi a century before the time of Columbus?
Hayes said that the Open Sea when he saw it
was calm; we saw it in the same mood. yester-
day. To its shores at once! In the shi of the
eleventh century we may ride to the Po e in the
nineteenth!”

Ned Manly was silent for a moment, but Dick
could see that his own enthusiasm was having
an effect upon him.

“Think of it!” cried Dick, grasping his arm
as he was speakin . “Immorta renown is
within our reach! e have been in the hands
of fortune all along. Let old Nantucket have
the honor of finding the North Pole. The old
sea. king’s ship awaits us on the shore of the
Open Sea. Netek will 0 with us! To the
boundless ocean of the hits North! To the
Pole itself!” 

Who could 1315!; such enthusiasm?

Ned Manly’s e es fair! ' sparkled as he seiaed
his companion’s and an eXCIaiuiod:

“ I am with on, Dick! Nantucket shall have

the honor that undreds have died for! To the .

North Pole!”

 

CHAPTER XI.
AN EXCITING m.
11an and white were the snowdrifts that'
awaited the oung adventurers at the footof
the glacier. ey went down in high spirits,
well laden with eggs and fat youn auks,’
tempting morsels when rightly cook over a

fire of polar moss. The dogs hailed the little ‘

party with many demonstrations of canine joy;
durin the egg-hunt the venous members of the
team ad gorged themselves on the frozen bear-

meat in the sledge and were ready for any‘

dut .

The storm was over, and although no sun was
to be seen, the temperature had risen, and the
fine particles of snow, of late so troublesome. no
longer filled the air. Barring the drifts, the
opening of the journey to the open ‘sea was au-
spicmus.

Netek proposed a return to the spot where he
had killed and cached the seal, for he said that

they would find the meat and fat wholesome ’

and life sustaining; besides they could the
sooner reach the sea by that route, and that at
a point from whence a good View of its waters
could be obtained. '
Afew minutes later the journey began: I
was quite slow for the drifts were many, but
the dogs plunged forward with zeal, and the
boys helped to push the sled along. Above
their heads circed hundreds of arctic birds,
among whose numbers were many cormorant
gulls, great gra birds With gaping yellow bills;
hey made  havoc With the young auks
whom they would swallow at a single gulp, an
the infant elders shared no better fate. ‘

Ned succeededby a well directed shot was

a

‘ .

 

 

 

 

 

 

so,j * ‘

’«‘r,".’
l' ‘

I...»

' ' ton in bringing down one of the male birds.

 

- short work of iot.’

. Note pounced u’ nit as soon as it struck the
snow, and instant y cut from its mow two lit-
tle nuke which were hardly dead. These he flung
upon the sled with the remark that they would,

he] to satisfy the cravings of hunger, while the

gall itself was thrown to the dogs, who made

The journey to the cached seal was rendered
tiresome by t e difficulties which the party had
to overcome, but the spot was reached at last,
and the reelous meat found. They were now
not far rem the open water, and Dick uttered
a cry of delight when Netek pointed to a berg
from whose clifi‘s be said a view of the water
could be obtained.

“I must see it!” the boy exclaimed, hurrying
toward the berg, and his comrades watched him
ascend the berg until the sinuosities of the icy
trail hid him from sight.

After awhile a faint shout came down from
the berg, and the tiny figure of Dick could be
seen far overhead. Something like a dark ball
seemed to fly about his head. Nod knew that
he was: waving his bear—skin scarf for joy at
si ht of the open water far away!

hen Dick rejoined his companions he told
them that from the ice-clifl? or pillar he had
' looked upon amighty stretch of open water
which, in his judgment, must extend to the Pole.
So far at! he could see, not a ripple marred its
surface, and not a sail appeared on its bosom.
But that was no reason why they should not
seek there the strange ship whose mirage had
up ared in the sky. .

‘ It may not be the open water which Barentz
saw in 1596, nor that which excited old Baron
Eengell’s enthusiasm,” said Dick; “ but it isY

highway to the Pole-the road to honor and
fame!’ V

The expedition pushed on again and soon

afterward entered areal arctic canyon which
was the most beautiful and sublime sight they
had ever beheld. The bed of the ulch was not
more than at feet wide. We ls of ice and
sienite towere six and seven hundred feet
above them, and Ned declared that they were
journeying through a glacier which had been
sent 1) .d polar earthquake. The late storm bad
spur the canyon, for but little snow had en-
tered, not enough to cover the lichens that grew

from crevices inthe rock.
All at once a ball of white lea d from behind
a. bowldor and went down t e gulch like a
rocket. The dogs saw it at once, and rung
awn with eager yelps, but this time eiek’s
ban ‘were at the lines, and with the craft of an
imaux driver, be checked the team and

on Dick to fire.

,The command was instantly obeyed, for Dick

 had- just taken the fowling-piece from, cover to

 

 

 

 

‘ Mouton. and

fire at some of the birds that filled the canyon
, in countless numbers, and at the crack of his
gun, the bare executed a summerset and lay
quivering in the snow. In a moment the sled
“was alongside the prize, which was picked u ,
and declared by the Innuit to be a large arct c
hare—the first the boys had seen since their
arrival within the polar circle. The animal was
very handsome as white and soft as swan’s
down, with a black crescent marking the car-
tips. He must have weighed twelve pounds,
and waslin excellent order, for a number of
arctic willows in the canyon bore evidence of
having been lately visited b his teeth.
‘.‘ Hark!” suddenly cried ed as Dick inspected
his ame‘. , “What was that, Netek?”
. M' alrufl‘” , ‘
- “ What! are we so near water as that?”
“ Mebbe '50.” t .
l The singular‘sounds which all now distinctly
heard. came down the canyon from the direc-
tion in which they were traveling. Netek had
recogniied the cry of the walrus, which sounds
like something between the mooing of a cow
and the (lee est baying of a mastiif. The huge
animal con (3 not be far oil’, and his presence
‘ fiolddlthe party that the coast was near at
an . .
‘ Netek now leaned forward and addressed
some Esqulmaux Jargon to the dogs, which
immediately starte them on again, but without
a bark. The Innuit boy then took a lon spear
of unicorn ivor from the boat, and astin
- examined its po nt.
* “Boy take guns,” he said in a low voice.
“ Walrus sipak very good 1” '
Dick exchan ed his fowling—piece for a
ed stood erect with a similar
Weapon in his hands. '
In a few minutes the dogs had drawn the
sledge to the end of the can u, from whence it
view of the coast before t e adventurers was

had. A number of hummocks and ice ridge- -

v
I

 

 Boy  .

ted their egos, and in a recently frozen
rctic bayou t ree walrus were soon. They
were still a lon distance off, but the boys could
see them rise t rough. the ice which they broke
with an explosive‘ pufl that filled the whole
re ion with sound. ‘

t was a sight that filled Ned and Dick
with enthusiasm and excitement. The dogs
were completely unharnessed, and told by
Netek to remain at the sledge, while the young
explorers began to creep toward the Sportive
sea-lions.

Netek, though a boy, was not a novice in
walrus-hunting. He told the boy Whalers to
watch him and do as he did. When the walrus
were above water the hunters lay flat on the
snow, but when they dived three figures glided
forward to drop again as soon as the ugly heads
of the great beasts rose again above the
surface.

In this manner the boys managed to reach a
hummock quite near the bayou, whose ice was
now broken in many places. Ned and Dick
were eager to use their Marstons, but Netek
interfered. The Innuit had fixed on end of his
coil of rope to an iron barb which, in turn, was
fastened Joosely to a shaft of norwhul tusk. The
other end of the line was looped.

Necek’s eyes fairly glistened as he waited for
the walrus to rise again. All at once up from
the cold depths of the be on came the tusked
monster, and as he shoo the water from 1115
homely crest Netek rose and threw back his
harpoon arm. The deadly missile seemed to

him as it’cut the frostyr atmosphere and buried

itself under one of the huge flippers!

Down went the walrus—or awuk as he is
called by the Esquimaux—nnd ‘Netek turned
and ran away. As he scudded across the ice
the boy payed ofl his coil, and drew from his
belt an iron-pointed stick,of bone. This he
made fast by means of the loop already formed,
and all at once drove it into the ice.

All this time the harpooncd walrus was furi-
ous. He broke the ice around him in his ra ,
and tried to relieve himself of the Innuit’s
spear; but the barb had been driven fur beneath
his hide, and held in spite of his eflorts.

The other beasts were no less furious than
their com anion. They dashed up thro‘u h the
ice with end trumpetings and afforde mo-
mentary targets for the boys’ rifles.

Dick gave one a ball in‘the breast, and sent
him uickly beneath the surface, and Ned was
quuIal y successful in wounding the other.

aving planted his line-staple firmly in the
ice, Netek approached the bayou with a seal-
spear and gave the struck walrus another
wound. This rendered the monster more furi-
ous than ever. He now became ag ressive,
and attempted to charge the boys wit his im-
mense tusks.

Dick was forced to fly for his life, for the
walrus suddenly threw himself upon the firm
ice and rushed upon him. In the midst of the
fight Netek uttered aloud shout which brought
the dogs up, and the walrus was attacked on all
sides before he could et back into the water.

Fast and furious etsk plied his seal-spear,
dextrously avoiding the beast’s vengeful thrusts,
and at last the fight ended.

The animals wounded by the Marstons had
made their escape, but the water was discolored
by their blood, and the ice around the bayou
was red.

The battle had lasted two hours for the wal-
rus is. tenacious of life, and a desperate beast to
encounter. Netek had given their Erize forty-
three lance wounds, and the rifles ad poured
their contents into'his huge body. The dogs
were eager to help themselves to the flesh, but
were kept back. Netck with his belt—knife cut
oil? the great lump of flesh that covers a part of
the animal’s chin, and held it up with a cry of
triumph. This piece is called 31’ wk by the In-
nuits, and is esteemed a great de loacy.

The walrus must have weighed seven hundred
pound, and looked ferocious with his huge
tusks and strong flippers.

“ Where is the sea?” suddenly exclaimed Dick.

“Always the sea!” remdrkevaed. "Let us
regale ourselves on sipak first." ' .

‘Not until I have seen the Open Ocean.”

Dick leaped upon the carcass and turned to-
ward thc north. ‘

“ Ah! the sea king’s shi l” burst from his
throat. “It is coming to t e shore to carry us
to the Pole l" ‘

Ned and Netek stood beside Dick a moment
later, and lookin over the arm stretched pole-
word, they behe d a ship on the glassy sheet of
water which men have named the “ Open Polar

This we; no optical illusion for, the strange

, \

 

-

ship was not two miles from the coast; indeed
the air being so rare, the oung explorers could
see that she resembled t e pictures the had
seen of the Norse vessel of the eleven cen-

th-y! .

or several minutes the three gazed s 11-
bound upon the si ht. They were abou to
ive three cheers at ick’s sug estion, when the
Ice beneath them was heavetf upward with a
terrible crash, and a moment later all three

were struggling in the icy waters of the polar'

basin!

 

CHAPTER XII.
‘ THE FLOATING RAT—NEST.

THE wounded sea - monsters had rushed
against the ice directly beneath the adven-
turers, and broken it into a thousand frag-
ments! '

The cold plunge bath was a den rous one,
for the trio were at the mercy oge the mad-
dened beasts for a while, and their escape from
being gored by the long tusks was miraculous.

Ned and Dick fortunately struck the water
near together, and helped each other to the firm
ice, while Netck, more agile under such circum
stances, gained a point of safety while his com~
panions still struggled in the water.

Wet and chilled to the bone the boy explorers
went back to the canyon, where a mess fire
was built, and their clothes put throu h a dry-
ing process. For a time Dick’s min seemed
clear of the North Pole project, but another
sight of the strange shi on the unknown sea
reanimated him with t at desire, and the re-
solve was made to reach it before night.

There was something mysterious about the
vessel, which seemed to approach the ice-bound
coast with the slowness of a snail’s travel. It
was still a mile from land, but offered the
American boys a good view‘from the clifis of
the canyon, and they looked upon her with a
great deal of impatience

It certainly presented the appearance of one
of the dregon-prowed vessels of the eleventh
century, when the Nortbmen are popularly
supposed to have discovered America, and to
have navigated to some extent the frozen sens
around the Pole. Ned and Dick did not expect
to find any Norseman on board; but the be'«
lieved that with the old ship which had on
geserved so long in' the at basin of the

orth Polar Sea, they won d be able to sail
northward—perhaps to the Pole itself—and
finally escape from the perils of arctic ship-
wreck.

The supply of walrus meat proved acce table
to bo sand dogs. Netek froze the blob r in
long elf—Inch strip: and packed it away among
the other food. e paunch of the beast was
opened by the Innuit and found to contain vast
quantities of fresh muscles which, when washed
and cooked, proved as acceptable to their dis-
coverers assimilar food once did to Hall and
his men. ~

The long day drew to a close at length with
the mystic ship but a very short distance from
the coast. A stout breeze from the north had
driven her shoreward, and for a. while she
threatened to beach. » ‘

“Now is our time. Quick! to the shore!
Let us board the vikin ’s craft before she backs
and leaves-us perhaps orever!”

Dick had scarcely finished ere the boys seized
the boat,'and pushed it into the water. They
had been waiting for the present opportunity,
and had, therefore, removed the runners from
the whale-boat, from which they had taken
nearly all the cargo so that it would not be dif-
ficult to manage in the sea.

The dog team did not like the idea of partin
with their three friends on the coast; but Nete
tried to make them understand that they would
return presently, and the oars were dipped for
the first time into the unknown waters.

The whale—boat shot straight toward the old
ship whose VoId-time sails were laden with ice
and snow, and the boy Whalers eyed her with
much curiosity as they advanced.

Not a sign of life was to be seen on deck. The
vessel sat motionless on the now glassy surface
of the sea, as if waitingfor the oung explorers.
Twice ’they rowed around her ore the ven-
tured to go on board: a sense of awe an mys-
teriylseemed to hold them back. ,

ey regarded the old dragon—th that
formed the ship’s prow with a great deal of in-
terest. Age had laid his band over where.
The sails appeared readyto fall to t e deck,
and the huklooked rotten and unseaworthy.

’But nothing could have held the boys bac

Netek shared the eagerness of his com ions.

“ Forward 1” suddenly exclaimed N “ Let

us solve this my'stery!” and the next moment
\ _ . \

 

, x

 Theme ' say muses.

,11

 

he had‘ leaped from the whale-boat and was

climbing at the risk of life and limb tothe deck,

above.

By means of a boat—hook which the Innuit
drove into the ship’s waist, the whale-boat was
kept from drifting away. All were now climb-

ingzugward.

e hesitated a moment when he looked over
the guiiwale upon a deserted deck, but seeing
Netek about to outstrip him in the boarding
race, he sprung over, declaring that a Nan—
tucket boy should have the honor of first setting
foot on the deck of a Northman’s ship!

He was quickly followed by his companions,
and all stood together near the tottcring mast.

“At last!” exclaimed Dick. “The eleventh
century and the nineteenth are united. Below,
and search the ship!”

Frost and snow were everywhere; they lay
thick on the narrow deck of the VPSSel, and
here and there were paths which had been
made by some living creatures.

A hatch half blocked up with snow dismally
invited the explorers, and having ignited his
torch of moss saturated with oil, Dick led the
way to the hold.

The eigcr trio soon discovered that there
were no steps. for all fell headlong into utter
darkness, and were left to recover in a snow
bank which at first appeared fathomlcss. They
extricated themselves with a good deal of dif-
ficulty, and Dick, after a long hunt. recovered
his torch which he managed to relight.

The inside of the 01d ship was in keeping with
its exterior—rottenness everywhere. The
planks the walked appeared to give as'they
stepped. ed actual! ' thought at one time
that he was about to fa 1 through into the sea.

' “This ship has been on these waters 9. thou-

v sand years,” said Dick who was forciny struck
by the signs of age and decay that'showed
themselves on every hand. “ Our discovery
amounts to nothing more than that we have
found a relicless hulk of the eleventh century.
I now move——”

“ Hist! what was that?”

“Rats, I suppose.” _

The boys were in u long low corridor directly
beneath the main deck, and the sound was like
that made by the soampering of an army of
rats.

A short distance ahead the gloom was im-
penetrable, but the boys advanced until they
saw hundreds of shining eyes, and as many
gaunt little bodies.

A rat run past Ned who struck at it with a
boatshook, then another and another followed,
until the whole corridor seemed alive with ver-
min!

"The ship is alive with them!” cried Dick.
“ We shall be attacked presently I"

And so they were. « ,

Led, as it actually seemed, by a giant leader,
on armgof rats threw Itself upon the boy.
They at cked with arage that knew no bounds
and the boys had to‘tear the animals loose with
their gloved hands. Their heavy furred clothes
did them noble service at the trying hour, for,
without them, they would have been terribly
bitten bv the enraged rats. There seemed no
end to the numbers that poured from the gloom
of the ship’s hold. How long they had lived
and bred there no man knew, and their mode
of getting food was equally a mystery, But

: theywere there, ravenous, gaunt and terrible.

It is not a. wonder that they forced the boys
back to thesnow at the foot of the hafchway.

“We must escape from here or be eaten
alive!” said Ned.

“ Yes. brothers.
quick 2”

Dick did not wait to be urged.

He sprung upon .the Esquimaux’s broad
shoulders and was raised upward uniil l-o could
grasp the edge of the hatch—hole and «in w him-
self upon deck again. Ned was next pcrmilted
to save himself in like manner, and Nemk was
drawn up by means of a. rope which the boys
instantly threw down to him.

“A narrow esca l”_ejaculated Ned Manly

'. drawing a. breath o relief.

, “I’ve got enough of the Open Polar Sea al-
ready. Let the rats keep possession of the
viking’s ship. Our place is on shore: not here.
Others may sail this waterway to the Pole if,
indeed, it leads there; but as for me, I will
stick to the mainland.” -

' Ned 3131‘ng to the ship’s side for the purpose
of descendingoto the boat, but Dick hesitated.
were they abandon the hazardous project
already? 00‘115 they not master the rats and
Venture northward across the sea in the vessel
which fortune had sent to their aid?

Suddenly a. cry from Netek startled him.

Get on thek’s shoulders—

 

“ Look; brothers
stands out to sea!”

The words pierced the hearts of the' boy
Whalers like the echoes of the knell of doom.

Dick looked over the Innuit’s arm, and saw
their whale-boat rocking slowly on the slight
swell of the Arctic Sea fifty rods from the ship!
Ned who was about to lower himself over the
gunwale, started back with a cry of dismay.

The boat-hook had pulled from the rotten
planks of the bulk, and sent the boat adrift!

It was the most thrilling moment in the lives

of the. lost young Whalers. Ned, keenly alive
to the horror of their situation, leaned against
the mast, and stared at the whale-boat with the
expresswn of a. person on the verge of mad-
ness. -
They were on an Arctic Sea in an old shell
aliVe with rats, and liable at any moment, to
gO'to pieces and leave them at the mercy of the
waves.

‘f We have been mistaken!” suddenly ex-
claimed Dick. “ This is not a see, but a strait!
Yonder is the other shore. See those moun-
tains of white, Ned 1"

_ Ned Manly turned and gazed for a moment
in the direction indicated by his companion.

“Do you call those White things mountains,

Boat gone away, and

thck?” he asked the silent Esquimaux. “ I do
not, for they seem to be approaching us.”
“ Icebergs i" fell from Netek’s lips. “ The

fog is lifting and we see the moving bergs of
the big white sea."

Dick could not speak.

He now saw that what he had taken for
mountains were immense icebergs, which were
actually approaching the ship, for they ap-
peared to increase in size each moment. Their
precipitous sides glittered like a vast diamond
fieldhand a strange noise, like the sound of wa-
ter in a. subterranean cavern, accompanied
their advance.

The old ship was motionless on the water, and
the largest berg visible~one seemingly half a,
mile in length and a. thousand feet high—~was
bearing steadily down u n her!

“To the sea!" cried ed. “1 see no safet
elsewhere. In five minutes more the berg wi 1
fall upon us i”

Safety—if there was safety anywhere—seem-
ed to lie in the sea.

Ned leaped to the old ship’s side as he finished,
and Wes about to spring into the cold element
when Netek’s hand was laid on his shoulder an
he was jerked back.

“Stay!” said the Innuit.
save mebbe, not to kill!”

“To save?” echoed Ned, staring into Netek’s
face. “ I don’t see how that white monster is
going to save us. ”

The berg was now so near that the boys could
see the great fissures. in its icy sides. An un-
seen hand seemed to push it forward.

“ Look! a bear!” shouted Ned:

Far above their heads, on one of the over-
hanging crags of the iceberg, stood a solitary
polar, monarch of all he surveyed. He looked
small from where the young adventurers stood,
but they knew that he was a king among his
spec1es. ‘

“ Berg coming to

 

CHAPTER XIII.
NEW DANGERS.

“READY, brothers! J um !”

At the last word three gures leaped from
the decaying ship that was at the mercy of the
iceberg, and landed on a snow-covered terrace,
about ten feet above the water!

Netek had spoken the words and all had
10:: ped together.

The next moment the old hulk reeled from
the berg. and with a terrible crash was shat—
tered before the eyes of the three. For a minute
the sea was alive with swarms of rats, but the
current that swept along the base of the berg
carried them down by scores, and the boys
watched their destruction with no regrets.

The three were now on an immense cake of
floating 1C9, and one which could boast of cliffs
whose crests seemed to touch the skies. They
could not but think of their dog team and eate-
bles, which had been left at the mouth of the
canyon on the mainland, nor forget the whale—
boat that had in all probability drifted from
them forever. ‘

Their Weapons now consisted of two seal-
spears, three belt hatchets, as man knives, and

one gun, a fowling—piece which Dic had thrown

across his back before boarding the mysterious
ship. The bulk itself had supplied them with
no weapons. ’

At first they had hopes that the berg Would
carry them near enou h to the shore tofacili-

tate their return to it, at their hopes were soon

 

blasted, for it slowly veered round, and drifted ,
:away parallel with the coast nearly a mile dis-
nt.

Night was “again cumin on. Great mm
titudes of birds flew in an out of the fissures!
far over-head, and caused the adventurers to re—
call the feast'of cider eggs and young auks.

The terrace towhich they had leaped from V

the ship was fifty feet in breadth, and firm. It
was covered with snow to the depth of a. foot.
and Ned dug through and found beautiful
white ice. Twenty feet above their heads was
another terrace, from which, if they could

reach it, the ascent of the berg would not be v

dificult.

After a short council the boys attacked the
ice wall with their hatchets and cut a stairway
to the terrace referred to. They rested there
awhile, and then began to climb the sidesof the

berg.

Do not forget that a hear was seen on one of
the crags just before we left the Norse ship.”
Ned’s words were not needed to put' his com-
panions on their guard. They were on thelook-
out for the polar, whom they were not anxious
to encounter at that time. ‘
The trio at last reached an elevated point
from which they could see in every direction.
They were, indeed, on a monster berg—one
of the largest they had ever seen. It had the
appearance of a vast hummocky wilderness in
many places, while elsewhere it bristled with
cregs and broken pillars. One sight that
riveted the boys’ gaze was a gigantic water-
spout that forced itself up from the sea be-
neath, through a hole in the bottom of the‘
berg. The column of water that was thus
forced fully fifty feet into the air fell back upon
the berg and rushed northward into the see.
again with a deafening roar. Not a sign of life
beyond the birds was visible on the berg; the
bear had probably hidden himself behind a.

“We are not alone on this floating prison. ‘

crag, or in one of the numerous fissures, and the .

young explorers did not care to hunt him at .

that time. ,

Satisfied that they were doomed to pass In
arctic night on the berg, the trio began to de-
scend to a little clifi—lockod valley which ap-

ared to be sheltered from the Wind.

“What do you think of the Open Polar Sea
by this time?” ventured Ned, with a faint
smile, as he addressed Dick. “We are in the
midst of it, and you will admit that the high:
way to the Pole does not seem to be .”

“Our situation is discouragin ,” was'tbe
reply; “and you are wishing, 4. ed, that we
had remained in Nantucket, and never sailed
in the ill-fated Belle. Come, do not deny this,
for I can read your thoughts. Am I not right?"

“ I confess that you are, Dick.”

“ But you are not hopeless?”

“ Never that!”

“Good! This is not ourfirst ride on an ice-
berg, recollect. We escaped providentially
from the other. Who says we shall not leave
this with better fortunes before us?” . ‘

Ned did not reply, for he could not shdre
Dick’s hopeful view of their situation. ? Jolly
Ned Manly, as he was knownin Nan ket, had
had much of his joviality taken fro him by
the dangers of the Arctic Seas. He was a
thoughtful b0 , fearless and equal to any
danger; but a could not see safety ahead
when they were drifting without foodcman ice-
berg through an unknown Polar Sea.» He
fancied that he could hear the dismal howling
of their Esquimaux dogs .when he drew his
jumper-hood close around his face and huddled

4

closer u to Dick under a jutting ice-crag, and. ' .r

in a ho low entirely sheltered from the wind
which had risen and was driving ,the bar '

 

through the waters at no moderate rate 0 ' ' ‘ V

speed for such a monster ship. ,
Netek’s countenance was as impassive and

unreadable as the face of a rock. Nothing

daunts the oung Esquimaux hunter; he takes

events as t ey come. and is content to make ‘

:39i best he can of the present, be it good or
a .

The roar of the waterspout was the only

sound that broke the stillness of the night, and!
fora long time the Nantucket lads lay awake
and listened to its discordant music. The ha
not gone supperless to bed, for Netek’s had
procured several young auks from among the
thousands of birds which had settled on the
cliflfs with the descent of night, and a few eggs
alsolfound had added a delicacy to. the scanty
men . i ' .
“ F'lre! fire!” rung out suddenly in landmines,
that made Ned spring to his feet wide’nvmbe,’
in an instant. g ,

His first glance was upward, and he adv.“

.7
r I .

 

 

 
 

 

1‘2,

 

I

The Lost Boy Whalers?

 

tape! the berg’s loftiest peak glittering in the
flash of fiames. It‘was adgrand sight and for
awhile the two boys stare at it unable .to give
vent to their thoughts.

“ Somebody isu there l" said Ned at last.

“No, brother; re out on shore; only light
up there.”

NLd now saw that the Esquimaux was right.
But who had built a fire on the mainland?

‘No one thought of sleep now. All rushed to the

narrow ath by which the had descended to
,their bedJ at dark. The lig 1; beat against the
berg in great waves, now intensely brilliant,
now dim again.

Ned was the first to drag himself upon the
lookout, and a. loud cry escaped his lips as he
pointed to the shore.

“ Some one must know that we are im—

» prisoned on this ice-cake,” he said. “ But what
are they burning? There is no wood in this
country.”

“Pieces of the old ship may have drifted
ashore,” answered Dick. “I Will answer them
with a flash.”

As he finished he raised the fowling piece to
his shoulder and fired The re ort was loud
and distinct and its echoes‘di away among
the hammocks behind them.

“Good heavens!” screamed Ned the next

‘moment. “If you have not made yourself
heard b the builders of the fire, you have
roused t e ogre of the iceberg!”

With a question on his lips, Dick Mizzen
turned to stagger from a huge white bear
which stood on his hinder feet and with open
mouth not ten feet away.

Ned instinctively retreated. too, but Notek,
with a cry of “Niameo!” raised his seal lance
and sprung at the monster.

 

CHAPTER XIV.
'AGItOUND!

NINNOm—or m’noo as some arctic explorers
have it—is the fiercest inhabitant of the polar
circle. He grows to great size and fears nothing
.when enraged. At times he will fly from man,
but, generally, be is ready to stand and fight.
_ One of his modes of attack is to rise upon his
hind feet and advance, gorilladike, upon his
antagonist whom he often overpowers by a
blow with his fore gaws.

The white bear rave and ferocious as he is,
finds a. fearless fee in the well-trained Esqui-
maux hunter. We have witnessed Netek’s
attack on the two struggling in the hold of the
old brig Oscar, and now he was called upon to
face another, this time on a heating iceberg.

The young Innuit did not hesitate a moment,
but dashed at the bear and, adroitly avoiding
his fore paws, drove the seal lance-deep into his
breast! A rowl of min led rage and pain
burst from t e monster’s t rent, and he would
have broken the lance if it had not been skill-
fully withdrawn, A stream of blood flowed
from the wound, and crimsoned the snow at the
bear’s feet.

, Ned and Dick joined in the attack with their
‘boat~hooks, but they could not inflict much
injury on the huge creature, who was still
being vigi‘arously assaulted by the boy Esqui-
maux. hey, however, diverted the bear’s
attention to themselves, and gave Netek an
Opportunity to get in some tellin thrusts.

All at once to the surprise 0 all the polar
turned and dashed away.

“ Ho! mime runs!” cried Netek derisively.
“The seal lance touches him in a tender spot,

, and he cries like an Innuit pappoosel But he

‘ shall not escape us, brothersl'

“Let him go," cried Dick clutching Netek’s

' arm as he s rung after the bear already on the

retreat. “ t us turn our attention to the fire

' on shore.”

“ Not while ninnoo runs away on four legs!"
was the response, and the young Innuit broke
from Dick’s grasp and csprung after his prey.

, The polar seemed 0 care for nothing but
escape“ His blood reddened the snow as be
bounded over the uneven trail, and Netek,
spear in hand, soon came up with him.

“ Nimtoo is a coward!” cried the boy. “ He
will not stand, and fight like a brave bear,
but he runs from a ho with an old seal lance.
Nth/ace ought to be a baby awuk.”*

. Netek soon came up with the retreating polar

and delivered several severe thrusts which

‘ ’ brought him to bay. The bear turned with a

ma ish growl which told that he had lost all
56 once; he had determined to put an end to
r combat. ‘ '

The Innuit was hardly prepared for the sud-

‘A young walrus.

I

  

 

den turn and change of tactics, and the bloody
mouth of the monster was at his head before
he could spring aside.

“Look out, Netekl’l shouted Ned who, with
Dick, _was coming up as rapidly as {possible
“ Nimwo is going to put an end to the gut."

The seal lance shot at the polar’s throat, but
entered his mouth and was crunched by the
powerful molars in the twinkling of an eye!

Netek withdrew the useless shaft with an ex-
pression of chagrin and quickly sprung aside
to avoid beino‘ crushed by the great claws. Ned
was fearful that the Innuit’s time had come,
for the bear seemed on the point of descending
upon him. Quick as a flash the Ainerican boy
aimed a blow at the polar with his hatchet, and
the weapon struck its intended target on the
lower 'aw, breaking it completely. '

If Ned had not thus interfered, Netek would
have been at the mercy of the bear, for the
Innuit bad stumbled over a cake of ice and
fallen to the ground.

“Much glad, brother!” he exclaimed as he
recovered, and faced the bear with one of the
steel—pointed boathooks which he took from
Dick's hand.

But bruin was not disposed to continue the
struggle' the blow on the jaw bad disabled him
so far a his biting and crunching were con-
cerned, and again he resumed his retreat.

This time Ned and Dick held the eager Netek
back, and the polar was permitted to disappear-
in the direction of the waterspout unpursucd.
He soon vanished from the sight of all, and the
boys went back to the crap; rom which they
had seen the fire on the mainland. '

The light was still brilliant, and fell on the
glittering sides of the berg, rendering them
beautifu beyond human description. The ex-
plorers could see figures about the fire, but who-
ther they were Esquimaux or white men, they
could not determine. It was not probable that
they were the latter, for no expedition, was
known to be in the far North at that time, and
Ned and Dick believed as they gazed that they
were a tribe of Innuits whose acquaintance
with white men was limited.

The iceberg was drifting through the Polar
See. at the rate of five miles an hour, and on a
line parallel with the coast. The firing of Dick’s
fowhn -piece had not been responded to by any
signal mm the shore, and the boys were ready
to admit that it had not been heard.

They still occupied the cliff and regarded the
fire with a great deal of interest. They no
longer doubted that it had been kindled among
the remains of the Vikings ship which the tide
had carried ashore; but where had the old hulk
been so long?

This was Ned’s uestion. Netek shook his
head and pointed to ick.

“Brother Dick knows good many things;
him tell mebbe,” said the Es uimaux.

“ I confess myself puzz ed,” smiled Dick.
“ It may have been imbedded in an icsberg all
these years and loosened by some late rest
thaw or b an arctic earthquake. You ave
heard. Ne , of the mammoth the Russian sailor
found in the ice many years a o. It had been
there thousands of years, pro ably but a pro-
tracted thaw exposed it, and when it fell
down, the sailor’s dogs and the wolves of the
countr feasted on the remains.

“Bu the rats weyfound in the old galley?”
queried Ned.

“ Ayl there’s the rub !” laughed Dick. “They
got on board somehow in late years, for, of
course, while the ship was entombed in the ice
they could not have existed. We will take the
rat problem to Nantucket to puzzle our old
professors."

“ If we are so lucky as to transport ourselves
back to the old place,” was the quick and seri-

ous le.

“ e’ l do that, for see, the wind has changed
and we are drifting toward the shore.”

Dick’s observation called a cry of joy from
Ned Manly’s throat, and he turned to test its
accuracy By keeping his eye awhile on a cer-
tain bright star in the firmament, he became
convinced that aveering of the wind had al—
tered the course of the berg.

They were actually moving shoreward, al-
though slowly, but that was enough.

The fire was fast dying out, as if the supply
of fuel had failed. The skies overhead were
dark again, and the light, which had added an
unwonted brilliancy to the peaks of their berg,
was playin there no longer. Almost direct y
overhead s one the Pole Star, and Dick could
not repressa sigh when he thought of the few
Elegfielea which separated them from the Pole
m ,

With much anxiety the explorers watched the

 

course of their berg, and presentl felt assured
that it would convey them to lan . ' ‘ ‘

Suddenly a harsh, grating voice from below,
and a trembling of the entire berg almost threw
them from their feet. A moment later the
wateirspout ceased to throw a thick stream sky-
war . r‘

“We are grounding!” cried Ned. “The berg
will not be able to beach on the shore proper. It
is too bad!”

Before the boy finished speaking the huge
berg stood still, but not unti it had quivered
from peak to base, and sent a number of top-
pling crags into the water.

The boys crouched under the heavy edge of
their cliff, while a perfect rain of gigantic ice-

rocks fell over them, and splashed the cold sea ’

into foam.

They were still a quarter of a, mile from land,
and it was evident that the berg would ap-
proach no nearer, for it was completely beached
—flrmly grounded, erhaps a thousand feet be-
low the surface of t 9 sea.

They could see the white outlines of the shore,
the broken particles of ice that lined it, and the
cliffs some distance back. A few flickering em-
bers were all that remained of the fire—barely
enough to mark the spot where it had been.

“ We must remain here till daylight,” said

Ned. “ If there are eople ashore we can then
make them see us. o-n’ight we can do noth-
ing.

To this conclusion all had to come. and a
warm place under the lee side of a clifi’ had to
be sought. One was finally found, but it was
not quite deep enough. The hatchets of the
boys came to their rescue, and the bed in the
ice was made lar e and snug enough for all.

The silence o the arctic night now fell
around them. The sea seemed waveless, so far
as sound was concerned, and, as the waterspout
had ceased to roar because the her had ground-
ed the quiet was awe-striking. he birds that
still flew seemed to have lost the ower of mak-
ing a noise. They darted like lack meteors
from above, and skimmed the tops of the waves,
to return with wet beaks to the dizzy cliffs of
the berg.

Ned and Dick watched them from beneath
their fur- lined jumper- hoods. Nearer and
nearer to their bed darted the nightrbirds. At
last one became so hold that Dick seized a boat-
hook and struck madly at it.

With a scream that sounded intensel loud
through the awful stillness, the bird fell utter-
ing down the clifl, and Ned, who leaned over
the brink and held his breath, heard it strike
the waters many feet below.

Instantly, as if by magic, every bird dis-
appeared. ,

CHAPTER XV.
ran CANNIBALS or ran POLE.

NOTHING occurred during the night to dis‘
turb the slumbers of the tired and hungr party
of three huddled together under the cliff):

When they opened their eyes they saw no
sun and not a sign of morning, save the ivory
gulls which were gleaning the sea in flocks of
thousands. A heavy fog enveloped the shore,
and the waves had a fresher motion than they
had the night before.

The berg was still immovably grounded, so
fixed that wind and tide combined could not
shake it.

Netek scaled the cliffs and brought back three
young gulls for breakfast. They cooked the

irds with the last moss left, and found them
well worth eating.

In the midst of the reipast Ned suddeul ut-
tered a shout and po'nte excitedlytowar the
shore. All were ins antly on their feet, gazing
ate. fleet of Esquimaux kayaks which had put
off from the mainland.

The boats numbered twenty or moreyench

 

contained a man whose body, or as much of it ,

as the boys could see, was clad in fur; his
nether limbs were hidden in the kayak, which
was made of walrus hide well lined on the in-
side with fur.

It was evident that the figures of the lost boy
Whalers had been seen by the Innuits, for the
kayaks were swiftly approaching the iceberg-—
coming straight toward that quarter from
which the trio was looking.

“Of what nation are they, Netek?” asked

Ned of the young Esquimaux, who was study-‘

ing‘ the polar fleet with a great deal of interest.
hex-ewes no reply, and Ned did not repeat

his «.‘Eostion, for Netek did not seem disposed to
s .

Pea .
When the boats had reached a little fiord at
the foot of the berg, the three boys descended,

 

 

 

 

 

.
i
.
,

 

 

 

 

» not a little.

\ that sounded familiar, and the

v 1'

The Lost Boy Whalers.

“:13 .

 

 

Notch went down witha good deal of unwilling-
nesshas he was afraid to meet the Esqnimaux;
but e kept back his thoughts, although he could
not deceive Ned, who studied him close] .
Along with the kayak fleet a koomia or fe-
males’ boat had been seen by the three. This
watercraft was large enough to carry six or
eight persons, and was well built and water-

ti ht. ’

g.l'he propeller of the head kayak was the first
to leap ashore, and the Nantucket boys were
startled on beholding a giant. His skin was a

dirty yellow. and, contrary to the usual cusi

toms of the Esquimaux, his face was tattooed.
His companions wore bright ornaments in their
ears, and their dress differed materially in cut
from the outer garments of any Innuits ever
described by polar explorers.

“ We have fallen in with, a people never dis-
covered before,” remarked Ned.

“ Why should it surprise you.z We are in the
‘Open Polar Seal" was the re ly.

Netek excited the curiOSity of the sin ular
people as much as Ned and Dick did. hey
turned him round and round, eyiug' him closely
all the time, and frightened the simple fellow
The boy Whalers had resolved that
their comrade should sufler no violence at the
hands of the strangers, and. kept near for the
purpose of rendering him any assistance he
might need. For some minutes the inspection
lasted, and the three boys were motioned to
enter the koomiak, which they did without re—
sistance.

A glance at the long knives which the
strangers carried in their belts would have
intimidated the bravest. These Weapons were
made of iron. The handles were composed of
walrus ivory, and Were rude] ornamented.
The countenancos of all denote bung r: their
eyes had the wild glare of the halfostarved man’s,
and the Nantucket boys shuddered when they
noticed how rovenously the Innuits looked at
their well-rounded bodies. .

Had they fallen into the clutches of polar
cannibals? . _

The koomiak was placed in the midst of the
fleet of kayaks When they set out on the return
to shore. Not an intelligible word had yet been
gallon by the strangers. Notch, though an

squimaux, was unable to translate their
jargon. v .

“We have fallen into the greatest peril yet,”
whispered Ned to Dick. “ I am convinced that
we are in the hands of the cannibals ot the

, Pole. They look as though they have not

tested food for a. month, unless they have
feasted on their own kind. I

Dick did not reply, but kept‘lus gaze fixed
thou htfully onll the shore which they were
to i l tone in .

The; saggidiscovgred that the fire which they
had seen the nifigt before had been kindled with

ieees oi! the o Norse galley, which thetide

ad carried' ashore after being crushed by the
iceberg.

The stran ers jumped from their kayaks
.which they rew upon the beach, and hurried
the boys oil? inland as fast as their limbs- could
carry them. The journey did not-end for an
hour, when a villagli of ice huts, or igloos, burst
u on the Sr ht of a

DA shout gent up by the chief drew_forth the
gaunt poiiulation of the place—thirt half-
starved women and children. Not a 0g was
to be soon.

A few well~picked reindeer heads lay around,
and here and there a cracked bone, all of which
told to what a desperate strait the village had
been reduced.

Apart from the largest roup of igloos stood
om a good deal larger 511111 the others, and
toward this the trio were hurried. The chief of
their captors kept back the frantic women who
seemed ready to tear them piecemeal, for a
horrible purpose revealed by their looks.

The young adventurers were motioned into
the low entrance to the 13190, and they crawled
down an ice corridor until they found them-
selves in a large chamber, wall lighted because
its walls were great blocks of almost transparent
ice. ’A sense of warmth pervaded the place,
and Ned mechanically sought a fire, but none
showed itself. , r

They were left captives here for many
minutes; during which time they heard angry
voices on the outside. A fierce debate was going
on: their lives trembled in the balance.

Netek listened but could not catch a word
uimaux was
obliged to admit that they had fallen into the

war of a people of whom he had never

All at once the council outlido terminated,

W1 and.

\

 

and the captives of the North Pole cannibals
heard some one coming toward them.

“ Drawl” said Dick, firmly, as he drew his
belt-knife. “If we are .to fill the flesh‘ ts of
these demons of the North let us die With the
courage of Yankee boys! i. fear that we have
reached the end of our sail; but let the voyage
of life end for others at the same time!”

These words caused two more knives to be

drawn, and the three stood in the ice/house with,

their eyes fastened on the mouth of the
corridor. ’ »

Seconds seemed minutes, minutes hours.

At last the face of a. man appeared at the
end of the corridor of ice and the next moment
he stood before the breat less three.

“ Ig-loo-tik has a ken for the white boys and
their companion,’ he said in English that
startled the boys. “ He told the hungry people
that the white boys were wizards who can find
musk oxen and seal wherever they go. Ig-looA
tik is to take them out on a big hunt today,

and they must find food for the Innuits that ‘

have not tasted meat for several hours."

“ You 8 oke without authority,” answered
Dick. “ e are not wizards, and we cannot
find game where none has been seen for months. ”

“ thite boys must hunt with lg-loo-tik !”

“What if we should come back empty-
handed?”

Ig—loo-tik came up to the little party with
fine stride, and his hand fell upon Dick’s shoul-

cr. -

. “You must go on the big hunt with Ig-loo-
13118” he said, in an earnest tone. “Your very
cmstence de ends on this. I want you to trust
me. I am th Bascom from Nantucket, and
I have been with these peo )le twelve years I”

If a thunderbolt had fallen at the feet of the
boy Whalers they would have been none the less
startled.

They sprung back with ejaculations of amaze-
ent.

“ We are’Nantucket boys!” said Ned.

“ Thank Heaven I" was the response in joyful
tones. “I believe I have been ke t alive in
this white land for the purpose 0 succoring
you. You will hunt with me now?"

“Yes, yes i” '

L‘ Let us be oflf at once. I have told my tribe
you were wizards. I want to prove it. Come!
Call me lg—loo-tik, but know that under my
coat beats the heart of Seth Bascom from old
Nantucket!”

m

 

CHAPTER XVI.
on non NANTUCKET!

THE boys no longer hesitated to follow the
man whose cunning was trying to save them
iil‘om the fury of the cannibals of the polar cir-
c o.

All needed preparations for the hunt were
soon made, an Ig—loo—tik led the youn adven-
turers from the village. As they glide rapidly
over the frozan crust of the so ow, Ned told the
story of their trials since the strange disap-
pearance of the Belle of Nantucket, an acci-
dent which the reader will readily recall. Bas-
com listened with a great deal of interest.

“ I had a similar experience,” he said, at the
conclusion of Ned’s narrative. “A little more
than twelve years ago, the Whaler Porpoise, Cup-
tain Jolly, entered that same fatal sheet of water
in search .of whites erm whales. We sighted
one and sent out the ate but durii'g their ab-
sence a mighty fish—I do not say it was a
whale, mind (you,l,bovs—~struCli the Pox-poise
three times an sent her to the bottom. But
one~fifth or the men esca ed with their lives,
and I was among them. 8 know not where
to .go, for we were without a compass. Our
guidowas the Pole Star alone. After terrible
sufferings which lasted thirty days, the living
few were picked up by a hunting— rty of In—
nuits and taken to their country, here we le-
came members of the tribe, and you‘see before
You the sole survivor of the old ship Porpoise.
For twelve ears I have been in life, name, and
habits, an squimaux. Seth Bascom has been
Ig—loo—tik, the Seal-killer though since this aw-
ful famine has existed, confess that but few
seals have I speared. They seem to have left
their old ground, and not a bear or other ani—
mal have we seen these many day . ,

Though we have not given a l of Bascom’s
story as it fell from his lips, the reader has been
made acquainted with enough of it for the pur-
poses ot our narrative. ’

The Nantucket sailor no longer looked like an »

American. His twelve years’ life among the
Esquimaux had almost completely altered his
appearance. The’boys would never have sun-
that he had once reared theeaile or a;
antueket winder. ; « r ‘ ., »

\

1 ti

 

He'told the party that the tribe to which he
belonged dwelt on the shores of the great Open
Sea 0 the arctic regions, that at certain soas’ons
of the year strangely warm winds swept across
its bosom, and it was a tradition among the
tribe that they blew from, warm countries on
the other side of the globe. He, too, had seen.
the viking’s ship of late years, and he ventured
the opinion that it had drifted from the icy wa—
ters of the Asiatic side. There were fish in the
Open Sea. whose scales were as large as his hand,.
and a species of narwhal which had two swords, ,
one of which seemed barbed like a sealer’s
lance. None of these sea—monsters, Bascom
said, had ever been caught, but it was certain
that they existed, for two broken swords had
been found in the carcass of a whale which the
North Sea Innuits had killed. .

The hunting party pursued a southerly route
from the village. Bascom seemed anxious to
reach a. certain point, as soon as possible but
the boys did not question his eigerness. _ hey
could not forget the dogs and edge, with its.
precious contents, which they were compelled
to abandon at the mouth of the strange can on.
Ned would have told Bascom about it, but
prevented saying that it was best to let the old
sailor have his own way for the present.

Bascom had provided himself with two kip!»
kut-tas before setting out from the village.
These are little rods of whalebone not larger
than common knitting-needles, but, small as
they are, the Esqliiimaux sealer cannot get along
without them. 'etek at once recognized the
little rods, and took the one Bascom cflered him.
It was about thirty inches in length and had an
iron pointas sharp as a sewing needle’s: the»
other end had a string about two feet in length,
to which in turn was attached a small 
These seal signals were the first Ned and ic

had ever seen, and they examined them with.

much curiosity.

Two hours after leaving the Inuit village»
and its starving inhabitants, Bascom halved and.
told the adventurers that the had reached the
old sealin grounds of the orth. An arm of v
the Open olar Ocean lay beneath them, andall.
around was ice and snow. -

Bascom told how many nights he had t
on these grounds watching for seal, how 0 ten
he had been compelled to go back to the village ‘
With the same story of nonvsuccess, to be greet-
ed With cn'es and groans from the starving wo--
men and children in the igloos. ' , ' l

“The seal ought to be here now,” he 
“ They used to come here in great numbers just
before the winter set in but shiver my top-~
lights! it we have sighted one for months?’

An examination of the snow now began. The
Nantucket boys were instructed how to race -v
nine seal signs, and the reader will not dough
the real they displa ed in the search. ‘

Suddenly a, 11;}; cry from Dick drew the
others to ' . e be had discovered what
he had taken for a. —hole, and he held his
breath while Bascom examined it.

“ You’d make a good hunter, Mr. Minoan,”
said the old sailor. _' ’

“ Then it is a seal-hole?”

' ‘ ‘ Nothing more nor lea.”
The joy of the little party cannot

be de— ' 4
scribed. Bascom could hardly restrain  ‘ ‘

light as be lowered his lei ta into the hole .
and got his spear ready. How breathleasly all
waited for the reap no of the animal, an ,
how hawk-eyed‘the sailor regarded his alga]!
Auhourpassed away; no seal. Netek g ' ed
offend wassoonseenflxmghissignal inaspot
not far away.

All at once Basoom’s right arm carried the
sealinlfi—spear aloft, for somethin beneath the
ice h lifted the lighht Rape-hut- a. The; next. "
instant the lance 5 ct ownward under the ‘
snow, and a dull thud told that the blow was a _
telling one! At once the coil of rope in Bas~
com’s left hand be u to run out, and a loud ,
about of Joy burst in the old whaler’s throatl: ’
The seal seemed bent on trying the length of
Bascom’s line, for he had made for deepwatar:
but the sailor’s coil was 01 more than Ordinary
lenglth, and he paid it out with dexterityaa fast
as t e animal wanted it. '

Netek, who had met with no success at his
hole, boaindedkgfthefvibatier’s Sidqflndtgeiflé his
pelong (mg i e e l removang as
snow around the seal-hole, and with a bar-pool; '
broke and removed the ice. ’

"Seal come “up byand byfo bred "said
the young inn ' {‘Ig-log-tik’s spear in:

hisbody'himn'gfge . I I, ,r
,‘fljoouldnct ordtolosethisseal,”aaldfie
 ‘

cry which
downward with great tome. _

ick" I

7 \,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

,.

14‘ .‘

l w

m Lost Boy Whalers.

 

The iron barb penetrated the thin skull of the
annual; which at that moment had reappeared
at the opening for air, and b the united efforts
of the party, he prize was . rawn upon the ice,
and found to be a large male seal which must
haw weighed two hundred and fifty pounds.

“ This wouldn’t be a taste for the Village,” re-
marked Bascom contemplating the seal. “ The

gwhole of it would disappear in the twinkling of
an e e. L
""i Asy the Nantucket boys had not eaten for
some hours, the pieces of raw blubber which
Netek‘s pelmig cut from the prize were quite ac-
ce bio, and the hunger of all was alloyed.
uring the repast a cry burst from the
{01mg Innuit’s throat and he rushed to his scal-
ole. The next moment he was seen to strike
and a shout announced to all that a second ani-
mal had been speared.

It proved when taken from the water quite
rs large as Bascom’s, and helped to confirm the
belief that the seals had at last returned to their
old haunts. The day proved a successful one,
for twent seal were speared through the ice.
They ma e an immense pile of meat, on the

_snow, and a cache was made for its preserva-
tion. ‘ a

“ You are wizards of good luck," said Bas-

' com, addressing Ned and Dick. “I told the In-
. units that instead of eating you, they would get

to.eat seal if they would let me take you out to
hunt. I was not wrong, on see!” And the
laugh of the old sailor fe upon the ears of

- \ ,

“We will carry some of the meat back with
us, I suppose.” said Dick. 4

“ We are not going back!”

‘ “ What i”

“ We are going to Nantucket from this
point.” -

“ And leave the seal in the cache f”

“Yes. It will be found—never fear. The
Esquimaux come daily to this sealing—ground.
They will find the meat and gorge themeslves.
I .am I -loo-tik no longer, at Seth Busctim
from th time on. To the south! To Nun-
ticket!"

“ If we must start from this point, I wish we
could recover our dogs and guns."

“ Where did you leave them?"

' “ At the mouth of an arctic gorge. Where it

is I do not-know. The landmarks of this region
are all the same to me. Netek may know some-
thing about it.” .

Bascom erly questioned the young Esqui-
maux. N233, like his whiter com anions, was
lost in the North Sea region; but 6 faithfully
described the canyon to the sailor.

“Ah! we shall nd it!" he exclaimed.

“Do you really think so?” asked the boy
Whalers ly. r

“ We, ‘ , at any rate.” ‘

When the hunters’left the searching ground ‘

each cadiedwith him a good supp! 'of meat.
'Bascmn led the way. N etek and the antucket
he s trod in his tracks.
‘ , onthey went, a wild, wearisome march
over the white wastes that continually stretched
before them. The dull day waned and night
was near at hand once more when Ned and
Dick exclaimed simultaneously: “The canyon!
the cliffs!” ,

Over yed at the rediscovm‘y of the place
where , ey had left sledge and dogs, the boys
darted. forward, to stop suddenly, and start
back with cries of dismay.

" The sledge was there. it is true- but crushed
in as if by the blows of a sledge umincr. and
* their blankets and other coverinlgsliitr-rcd the
ground for many rods around. ot a dog was
_ to be seen and the boys were heaping impreca-
i; tions upon their heads, when the old sailor

r ke. ,
““S‘P2 Don’t blame the dogs with all of it!” he
. “' They may have attacked the provisions.
.4 :1 don’t blame. them for doing that, for dogs get
hunga. But they didn’t break the sledge."
' “ at'did. then ” .

'“ Locket those big tracks in the snow.”

The boys obeyed and turned to Bascom a
moment later. _

.“Bears have visited this ot. They took
what the dogs left and helps themselves to
eye thing. But thank fortune they left us
one arstom!” audelck held up triumphantly
thewrifle which he had just drawn from the
am 1

Further search, revealed the other weapons

,rand'One unbroken ammunition canigfier, but
thqwooden handles of the boat-books (1 been
‘ ,chewg‘dup, and the COVerlets were hill of

3" ' l and that the whale~boat could be
patched up and rendered, as ‘for service, but the

»

 

l

boys doubted it, and agreedto let him try his
hand at the task. ’

Sheltered from the wind in the polar canyon,
the old sailor fell to Work, and to the surprise
of all finished before midnight.

" Now for Nantucket!" he exclaimed.

“New?” ‘

“ At once!” .

The winds seemed aslee and the Pole Star
possessed an unusual bri liance. The heavens
glittered with lights, and not a sound broke the
stillness of the night.

It was at such an hour that the little party
set out toward the south, and turned their
backs forever upon the Open Polar Sea.

They dragged the mended whale-boat be-
hind, eager to launch it in warmer waters!

CHAPTER. XVII.
A PERILOUS SADDLE.

 

“ ‘A TRACK at last! It is not the footprint of.

a polar either, for Netek said we would find no
bear in this latitude at this season.”

The boy Whalers stooped and examined the
track in the snow with a great deal of curiosity.

They were far from the canyon from which
they had set out days and weeks before with
the cry of “ On to Nantucket." Rare good
luck had attended them: they had found a dis-
trict that abounded in food, reindeer, arctic
hares and ptarmigan, and were ushing on
with renewed courage, eager to reac an Esqui-
niaux settlement before winter came on with
W or.

l‘he track before the boys was that of a musk-
ox, an animal which inhabits the Arctic Circle,
and affords the hunter rare pleasure and not a
little exciting peril. Netek and Bascom were
not far away, caching a reindeer which the
sailor had killed, and the boys resolved to fol-
low the track which was quite plain in the
snow. ‘

They were in one of those snowy valleys
which are to be found in the far North. Before
them lay a range of bills from whose tops Bas-
vom thought an lnnuit villa e might be sighted.
Presently more tracks of t e same kind were
discovered, and the young hunters knew that a
herd of musk-oxen, were ahead.

They hastened toward the hills which were
covered with a thin coating of red snow. It
was not the first they had seen, and did not excite
their curiosity, for they knew that certain
plants beneath it had communicated to it the
peculiar color it wore.

Cautiously following the track of the musk-
oxen up the hill, the boy Whalers found them-
selves s ut off from their companions. but took
no note of the circumstance. They were too
eager to bag the noblest horned game in the

. North.

“There must be a plain on the other side of
this rise.” said Ned, “and from you rock we
shall be able to gaze down upon it.”

The “ rock " designated was soon reached,
and the first look. that the young Nimrods threw
downward fully rewarded them for all their
caution and tact.

A short distance below them, on a small piece
of table-land, stood a herd of ten musk-oxen.
They were within easy rifle-shot, and presented
5 lendid targets for a good marksman’s aim.

he boys saw the short legs, handsome horns
and long wool of the noble game, and instinc—
tivcl raised their rifles.

“ ll take the big fellow on the left,” whis-
pered Ned. “ Give his companion the benefit
of vour aim. Are you ready ’4”

Dick moved his rifle a hair‘s breadth and whis-
pared: “ Ready l”

“ Don’t miss now. Fire!”

The two weapons cracked as one piece. Ned’s
ox itched forward, fell on his knees. and then
sun dead upon the snow; but Dick’s turned
with a mad bellow, and charged straight up the
hill followed by the whole herd!

It was evident that the creature was crazed by
the bullet, and did not know what he was doing,
but as he was the leader of the pack, all felt it
their doty to follow him unquestioned.

“Horror!” gasped Ned as he sprung up and
started from the herd now almost upon t em.
“ That was a had shot of yours, Dick—an unfor-
tunate wound! We must fly!”

“ Never!”

Dick had slip a new cartridge into the bar
rel of his n, and was pointing it at the
charging herd. r

An instant later he fired firefight at the low-
ered head of the infuriated lea er, but as well
in t he have aimed at a cannon ball.

‘ We’ can’t stop them!” he cried.

.“Ofcourse not. Come!”
Ned plunged as fast as his limbs could carry

/

 

i

him down the narrow pass throu h which they

had traveled to the shooting stat on, and Dick,
Ivlvhcli had not ' time to reload, bounded at his
es s. f

It was a terrible run for life..for the chargigg
oxen soon gained the summit and thunde
down u on the boys. A glance behind told the
twain at their Situation was desperate. Des-
pite their stumpy legs tho musk-oxen came over
the ground at no slouching rate of speed. They
were still led by the crazed victim of Dick’s first
shot, and he seemed to have caught sight of his
enemy at last. i

All at once with a crv of horror that struck a
chill to Ned’s heart, Dick stumbled against a
snow-covered ice cake and pitched headlong to
the round.

“ ercy! mercy! I shall be gored to death 1'
rung from his throat, as well it might, for the
herd was upon him.

Ned turned to his comrade's assistance only

'to see the head animal charge Dick with low-

cred head and blazing eyeballs

A second later the unfortunate ho was lifted
from the ground and borne onwar at the van
of the long-wooled demons!

Ned gave him up for lost, and to save himself
was compelled to hug the rocks of the gorge,
and breathe a prayer for safety. He shut his
eyes as be hugged the barren rocks, nor opened
them until the herd had passed him and were
thundering across the open land beyond.

Where was Dick?

Ned ran forward and looked in the direction
taken, by the med beasts. He saw them far
away, evidently as furious as ever, for, as he
gazed, the whole herd disappeared!

“They must have dropped Dick somewhere
on the trail. I will not desert the boy I”

He’started down the track made in the snow ,

by the arctic bisons, and followed it a long dis-
tance until his limbs grew weak and despair
tugged at his heart. '

Dick was not to be seen!

Ned stood bewildered and wretched in the

snow.

Could it be that he and Dick had been sepa-
rated forevvr? ,

“ I will go on to the end!” he exclaimed, with
resolution. “ One Nantucket boy must not de-
sert another and leave him to his fate.” I

He was about to resume the trail when a
shout made him look back toward the hills.
Netek and Seth were coming up.

Ned waited for them with a heavy heart.

“ Where Dick, boy ’4'” asked the young lnnuit.

Ned’s reply was the story of the fatal musk-
ox punt. Bascom and Netek listened atten-
tive y. '

“ Dick is in a pretty predicament, but we will
find him,” said the old sailor. “ I rode a. whale
once. and I’d sooner ride a dozen than one
arctic ox!”

These words did not reassure Ned Maul , but
he still hoped that Dick would be fOun
not far away.

Bascom led the hunt. which led in asouth-
easterly direction. A line of hills rose before
and these they were obliged to scale. -

“Look yonder! a ship frozen in the ice 1” sud-
denly cried Ned.

The old sailor and Netek uttered exclama-
tions of surprise.

“ I can hardly believe my eyes," said Bascom,
and, as the three gazed at the unexpected si ht
of a large ship frozen in in that latitude, Dick
Mizzen seemed to have been forgotten.

CHAPTER XVIII.
BACK FROM THE OPEN SEA.

THE trio‘s forgetfulness of their comrade did
not last long.

Ned was the first to call them back to Dick’s
distressing situation, and the trail of the musk
oxen was resumed. , .

The ship seemed to lie three miles westward
from the point of discovery, and ‘in full view
from the trail of the herd. 33mm continual] ’

lanced in that direction, but Ned and Nete
ked ahead and at the trail before them.

All at once the oung Esquimanx uttered a
strange cry and painted at the snow.

There was blood upon the trampled surface
bull: whether Dick’s or the ox’s no one could
to . . ‘
“ Forward! fasterl” cried Ned. “ I feel that
our trail is to end very soon.”

The hunters alarmed by the stain on the
snow pressed on with new vigor. few
moments afterward a shout came down from a
point overhead and all sto 92d and looked up.

“ Dick! alive 1" shouted ed, and Basoom and
Note]: echoed his or of jo .

 

Y
On the summit o the trail which they were ‘

t

safe"

 

 

 

 

 

The Lost Boy miners, 

W '_15

 

 

following, over a. line of iced hillocks, stood
Dick Miuen, aggarently unhurt.

‘ “ Come up a help yourselves to ox-steaksl"
he exclaimed. “ I have some juicy ones at the
foot of the slope behind inc—steaks, which you
will say, have been earned.” _ .

The joyful parties soon met again, and Dick
was obliged to relate his adventure.

“ When I stumbled and fell in the snow,” he
said, “I gave mySelf up for 10517, for. as I
turned to rise, the musk-ox, wounded by mp
first shot, was ii me. He came at me Wit
lowered head and bloodshot ey full of rage.
The next moment I found mysel . clear of the
ground, clin ing frantically to his horns. He
tried to she e me off, but I managed to get
astride of his neck, to which I held in spite of
his efforts to relieve himself of his rider. 1 was
now in the midst of the plunging herd, and
then at its head. i dared not let go, for to have
done so, would have been the e d of me. Under
the feet of the mad herd and by their horns, I
would have been killed in a moment! At last
my novel steed was forced to the rear by the
band, for he was growing weaker, ' and no
longer able to keep pace with the others. Still
he kept on, and I determined to attempt to put

\ an end to the matter.

“I drew my belt-knife, and holding by one
hand to the ox’s long wool, I leaned to one side
for the purpose of striking a blow at his heart.
For several moments I could get no chalice to
accomplish my purpose, for the wounded ox,
suspecting my intention, would strike fiercely
at me With his home. At length, however, I

dealtva blow which drove my knife to the hilt
in the animal’s Side. We were then at this spot,
the summit of the trail. A certain sign told
me that my blow was a telling one; but the ox
managed to keep his feet, thou h he went
stag ering down the slope. He fel at its foot
and succeeded in escaping bein smashed by
his great body. The herd dashe on. If they
had turned on me I am sure I would have fallen
evictim to their fury, for as wild ride and
peril had unnerved me. I t ank Heaven for
my narrow escape. Yonder lies the ox,"
finished Dick, pointing down the hill. “ He is
a fine large fellow—one fit to be the leader of
the herd.

The four went down and found the musk-ox
in the snow. He was dead. .

"We have made a thrilling discovery, Dick l”
suddenly exclaimed Ned. .

" The ship?”

“ You saw it, then?"

“It burst suddenly on my sight during my
wild ride. Iam sure I saw smoke ascendin
above the forecastle.‘" '

The musk-ox was cached where it had fallen,
and ‘the rty set out for the ship frozen in in
the‘ice. eir feelings cannot be described as
the neared the vessel and saw smoke issuing,
as Sick had said, from her forecastle.

All at once several figures appeared on the
ship’s side and their numbers were increased to
fifteen or twenty as the adventurers kept on.

“ Ship ahoy, therel” shouted Seth Bascom, in
a clear. good-natured voice, and the cry came
ba k.

c .

“ Aho there, yourself.” _

“ Yan ees, by J ingo i” cried the old sailor.
“ I reckon we’ll find some Nantucket tars on the
old craft.” V ,

A few minutes after the quartette stood on
the ship’s deck surrounded by a lot of white
men clad in fur garments after .the manner of
the Eequimaux.

“What ship’s this?" asked Seth.

“ The inde ndent Whaler Arctic.”

“From 01 'Nantucbti"

“If you please, sir!" .

Bascom’s shout could have been heard a mile.

"Whar are well” he inquired when he could
control his enthusmsm. _

“ In Barrow Strait, a little north of Cape

Ha .”
I Not far from Bamn Bay! Wal, this beats
all creation. Yen fellows look hearty; must

' ' have been livinfiesouth of Starvation Line.”

“Game has on plenty ever since we were
nlgped by the float! frozen in," was the
1‘9 y. “We hope to farewell until the ice
opens for nsto get into the bay, again. We
have been here a long time during which we
113" “tn no white man excepting1 three Dimes
who crossed our track a few mont 5 ago. The
were pitiable objects, the survivors of a Danis
WW Which got nipped somewhere about
Ilelvllle Island.” ,

“ The Oscar!” exclaimed Ned and Dick in
one breath. -
“ t was the name of the brig,” re ed the

‘ narrator. “They left the whaler wit nine or

\

 

ten men for Tasnavik, but their dogs gotnnruly
and left them to plod alon on foot. A snow-
storm caused' the loss of a 1 their instruments
and from that time their sulferings were in-
tense. We gave them our do a, as they would
go on; and by our assistance is ey were enabled
to reach the nearest Esquimaux settlement to
us, ‘on North Devon Land, where there is a
Danish ship frozen in.” ' '

“Thank fortune!” ejaculated Ned. “I trust
one of those men was Christian Olanson.”

“ He was the spokesman of the little party.”

The trials of the boy whalers had come to an
end at last, for good quarters awaited them on
board the Arctic, and they found friends among
the American sailors.

Their tales about the Open Polar Sea were
hardly credited by the Whalers, and Dick offered
to lead a party to its shores.

“ We can avoid the cannibals of the North,”
he said, “for I have no desire to‘encounter
them again. _ The seal we left in the cache for
them may have turned their tastes from human
flesh, although the supply will not lost them all
winter."

Dick’s proposition was not accepted, and he
did not renew it.

Of the hunting' incidents that followed the
little party’s arrival on board the Whaler, we
will not speak. They became experts in seal-
spearing and walruscatching long before the
dreary polar winter ended, and many were the
trophies of their prowess which they preserved
for transportation to Nantucket. ,

One clay the ice in Barrow Strait broke up
with a crash, and with a. loud cheer the old
Arctic was afloat once more.“

The American flag was run up to her mizzen
peak, and as she shot into the wider waters of
Baflin Bay, the cold breezes of the north
straightened its glorious folds.

The boy Whalers were homeward boundl

Behind them were the gallsgit crew of the
Belle‘ of Nantucket—lost fore er in the ice-
looked oceans of the frozen circle—their valiant
dog-team, and all the perils they had encoun-
tered and triumphed over. Behind them, too,
Was the Open Sea, whose .mystery' no livmg
man has fathomed. Whether it reaches to the
Pole, or is bounded on the north by impenetra-
ble barriers of ice, no living mortal knows.’ If
the log of the viking’s ship could be resurrected
and read, it might solve the problem which
may forever trouble the world.

Ned Manly and Dick Mimn returned to “old
Nantucket "accompanied by a person who was
a great curiosity there—Netek, the young seal-
hnnter of the Polar Seas.

Seth Bascom was looked upon by hiscompan-
ions as one risen from the dead, and a hundred
times was he called upon to tell the story of the
loss of the Porpoise.

Ned and Dick have been pretty effectually
cured of their love of whaling in northern
waters, but Dick has a plan for reaching the
Pole which he advances whenever he gets a
chance.

Just what it is 'we have not space to explain,
but suffice it to say that he believes that the Open
Sea he saw stretches to the Pole itself. He finds
many believers in his theory, and I would not
be surprised to hear of him leading an expedi-
tion toward the Pole some day. '

Ned takes but little stock in Dick’s hobby.

 

 

THE END.

'1‘ H E

0 I

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TR UTE S TRAN GE'R THAN PI 0 TI 0N /

 

 

 

 

A New Libary Expresst Besigned for “flur Boys”

WHO LOVE
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Romance of Sport on Field and Flood! Daring Deeds and Great Achievements.

0n the oceans and seas—in the deep, silent forests—on the boundless plains—in the mountain fastnesses and the untrailed hills——
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being something Wholly New and Novel, and giving a literature which in quality, kind, and exciting interest is

PECULIARLY THE AMERICAN BOY’S OWN'

NOW READY AND IN PRESS.

1 Adventures of Bufi'alo Bill. Prom Boyhood to Man- 22 The Boy Exiles of Siberia; or, The Watch-Dog of Russia.

hood. Deeds of During, and Romantic Incidents in the early By T. C. Harbaugh.
life of William F. Cody. By Col. Prentiss Ingraham. 23 pan] De Lacy, the French Beast Charmer; or, New

2 The Ocean Hunters; 01', The Chase 0f the LGViatl-"m- A York Boysin the J ungles. A Story of Adventure, Peril and Sport
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The prairie Ranch; or, The Young Cattle Herders_ By Jos. A Tale of Rovrng Joe and his Hunter Pards. By Joe. E. Badger, Jr.
E. Badger, Jr. 26 Snow-Shoe Tom: or, NewYork Boys in the Wilderness. A
Texas Jack, the Mustang King. Thrilling Adventures in Narrative of Sport and Peril in Maine. By 'I‘. C. Herbaugh.
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Roving Joe: The History of a. Young “Border Ruffian.” Brief 28 Elle Chg: gflgtsngrecfi';yhlte Stag and camp and
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Bruin Adams, Old Grizzly Adamn’ Boy Pard. Scenes 30 Walt Ferguson’s Cruise. A Tale of the Antarctic Sea. By
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1 1 Old Grady A s’ the Bel.” Tamer ’ or’ The monarch 0f mantic and Adven’turous Life of Dr. D. Frank Powell, known on the

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12 Wood: and Waters; or, The Exploits of the Littleton Gun 801d“- ?S ‘ Fancy Flank”, “ Iron Face’ em By COL 1" Inngam'
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Boy and Man, of Col. Prentiss Ingraham. By Prof.Wm. R, Eyster. 34 The Young Bear Hunters. A Story of the Haps and Misheps
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Bufl'alo Range. By 01] Coomes. Redwing.
15 Kit .Cal‘fion. King of Guides: 01‘, Mountain Paths and 35 The Lost Boy Whalers; or, In the Shadow of the North Pole.
Prairie Trails. By Albert W. Aiken. By T. 0. Harbaugh
16 Red River Rovers ; or, Life and Adventures in the Northwest. 36 Smart Sim. the Lad with a Level Head; or, Two Boys

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Plaza, and. Plain ; or, Wild Adventures of “Buckskin Sam,” “ho were H Bounmd‘” By Edward Winett'

(Major Sam 5, Han.) By 00], prentiss Ingmham. 37 Old Tar Knuckle and His 30 Chums; or, The Monster
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Cabin. Incidentsand Adventuresint eBackwoods. By Ed. Willett. A New Issue Every Week.

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21 Deadwood Dink a! 8, Bo ; or, Why Wild Ned Harris, the New p py’ a y ' p '
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Edward L. Wheeler. ' 98 William Street, New York.