though to tantalize him, numerous seals lay
sunning themselves upon the ice pans, for it was now past sunrise, but
his only weapon was his snow knife, and he was well aware that the seals
would slip into the water and beyond his reach before he could approach
and despatch them.

Looking away over the mass of moving ice he discovered to his delight
that the loose pans surrounding the little floe upon which he stood
reached out in a continuous field to the great Arctic pack which he had
watched so anxiously the previous day. And, what was particularly to
his satisfaction, the pans were so closely massed together that by
jumping from pan to pan he was quite certain he could make the passage
safely, and for a time at least be secure from the threatening sea.

Running over loose ice pans in this manner was not wholly new to Bobby.
Every hunter in the Eskimo country learns to do it, and Bobby had often
practiced it in Abel's Bay when the water was calm and the ice pans to a
great extent stationary. But he had never attempted it on the open sea
where the pans were never free from motion. It was, therefore, though
not an unusual feat for the experienced seal hunter, a hazardous
undertaking.

The situation, however, demanded prompt action. Should wind arise the
ice pans would quickly be scattered, and all possibility of retreat to
the big ice field cut off.

Bobby, after his manner, not only decided quickly what to do, but acted
immediately upon his decision. The distance to be traversed was probably
not much above a mile, and, selecting a course where the pans appeared
closely in contact with one another, he seized his snow knife, which he
had no doubt he would still find useful in preparing shelters, and
leaping from pan to pan set out without hesitation upon his uncertain
journey.

It was a feat that required a steady nerve, a quick eye, and alert
action, for the ice was constantly rising and falling upon the swell.
Now and again there were gaps of several yards, where the ice had been
ground into pieces so small that none would have borne his weight. He
ran rapidly over these gaps, touching the ice as lightly as possible and
not remaining upon any piece long enough to permit it to sink.

And so it came about that presently with a vast sense of relief Bobby
clambered from the last unstable ice pan to the big ice pack, and for a
time, at least, felt that he had escaped the sea.

For a moment he stood and looked back ov