er the hazardous path that he
had traversed. Then climbing upon a high hummock, which attained the
proportions of a small berg, he scanned his surroundings.

To the northward lay the loose ice; to the eastward and southward as
far as he could see stretched the unbroken ice of the great field; to
the westward and two miles distant was the black water of the open sea,
dotted here and there by vagrant pans of ice which glistened white in
the bright sunlight as they rose and fell upon the tide.

Suddenly his attention was attracted to something which made him stare
in astonishment and wonder. Near the water's edge, and extending back
from the water for a considerable distance, there appeared innumerable
dark objects, some lying quiet upon the ice, others moving slowly about.

"Seals!" exclaimed Bobby. "Seals! Hundreds--thousands of them! I can get
one now before they take to the water! They're too far back to get to
the water before I can get at them!"

And scrambling down from the hummock he set out as fast as he could go,
highly excited at the prospect of food that had so suddenly come to him.

"Oh, if I can get one!" he said as he ran, "if I can only get one! God
help me to get one!"

With this prayer on his lips, and keen anxiety in his breast, he neared
the seals. Then, all of his hunter's instincts alert, his advance became
slow and cautious. Crouching among hummocks, he watched his prey, and
studied the intervening ice, and its possible sheltering hummocks.
Carefully he stalked, now standing still as a statue, now darting
forward, and at last proceeding on all fours until finally he was quite
certain that those farthest from the water could not escape him. Then
springing to his feet he ran at them.

Bobby had until now kept his nerves under control, but with the attack a
wild desperation took possession of him, and looking neither to one side
nor the other he slaughtered the seals, one after another, as he
overtook them, until, the first frenzy of success past, he realized that
he had already killed more than he could probably use. Then he stopped,
trembling with excitement, and looked about him. Five victims of the two
species known to him as harp and jar seals had fallen under his knife.

Now he could eat. This thought brought relaxation from the great
physical strain and mental anxiety that had spurred him to activity and
keyed his nerves to a high pitch since leaving his snow cavern early in
the morning,