ility no other
opportunity would come to him.

So, uncertain, expectant, and trembling with excitement, he remained
concealed behind an ice hummock until the seal hunters in advance had
nearly reached him, and further concealment was impossible. Then he
stepped boldly out.

The effect of Bobby's appearance was instantaneous and wonderful. A man
in the advance, looking up, saw the strangely clad figure apparently
rise out of the ice itself. The man turned about and wildly broke for
the boats. Then another and another took one terrified glance at the
supposed apparition, and tarrying not, turned about to compete with the
first in a mad race for the boats. Shouts of "Ghost! Ghost!" filled the
air, and then the stampede and panic became general, though after the
manner of panic-stricken crowds, perhaps none but the first two or three
had the slightest idea why or from what they were running.

The two men with guns were still some little distance from Bobby when
the stampede began. One of these men was perhaps twenty-three or
twenty-four years of age, the other many years his senior. They were
dressed after the manner of sportsmen, and were evidently not members of
the sealing crew. They did not join in the stampede as the men rushed
past them in wild flight and confusion, but in utter astonishment looked
for its cause in the direction from which the men had come, and
discovered nothing more terrifying than Bobby, standing alone and no
less astonished at what had occurred than themselves, and more than half
inclined to run as fast in the opposite direction as the sealers had run
toward their boats.

"Uncle, there's an Eskimo!" exclaimed the younger of the two, observing
Bobby's sealskin garments, but at that distance unable to note that his
features were wholly unlike those of an Eskimo.

"Sure enough!" said the older man. "That explains it! The men weren't
expecting to see any one, and they've taken him for a ghost! Come on,
Edward. Let us interview him."

"How could an Eskimo get out here on the floe?" asked Edward, as they
set out toward Bobby. "We're a long way from land."

"I don't know," said his companion. "We'll soon learn. But Eskimo
hunters go a long way after seals, and he's probably on a hunting
expedition."

"Why, he hasn't the features of an Eskimo, though he's dressed like one;
and he's a handsome looking chap!" said Edward, in an undertone, as they
drew near Bobby, who had overcome his inclination t