im with his cutlass. The carpenter's hatchet was of
little use to him, for he could not wield it, and it was with the
greatest difficulty that he parried the lunges which Aupic made
with his knife.

Meanwhile blood flowed amid the groans and cries. Turquiette,
thrown down by Jocki, a man of immense strength, had received a
wound in the shoulder, and he tried in vain to clutch a pistol
which hung in the Norwegian's belt. The latter held him as in a
vice, and it was impossible for him to move.

At Vasling's cry for help, who was being held by Penellan close
against the door, Herming rushed up. As he was about to stab the
Breton's back with his cutlass, the latter felled him to the
earth with a vigorous kick. His effort to do this enabled Vasling
to disengage his right arm; but the door, against which they
pressed with all their weight, suddenly yielded, and Vasling fell
over.

Of a sudden a terrible growl was heard, and a gigantic bear
appeared on the steps. Vasling saw him first. He was not four
feet away from him. At the same moment a shot was heard, and the
bear, wounded or frightened, retreated. Vasling, who had
succeeded in regaining his feet, set-out in pursuit of him,
abandoning Penellan.

Penellan then replaced the door, and looked around him. Misonne
and Turquiette, tightly garrotted by their antagonists, had been
thrown into a corner, and made vain efforts to break loose.
Penellan rushed to their assistance, but was overturned by the
two Norwegians and Aupic. His exhausted strength did not permit
him to resist these three men, who so clung to him as to hold him
motionless Then, at the cries of the mate, they hurried on deck,
thinking that Louis Cornbutte was to be encountered.

Andre Vasling was struggling with a bear, which he had already
twice stabbed with his knife. The animal, beating the air with
his heavy paws, was trying to clutch Vasling; he retiring little
by little on the barricading, was apparently doomed, when a
second shot was heard. The bear fell. Andre Vasling raised his
head and saw Louis Cornbutte in the ratlines of the mizen-mast,
his gun in his hand. Louis had shot the bear in the heart, and he
was dead.

Hate overcame gratitude in Vasling's breast; but before
satisfying it, he looked around him. Aupic's head was broken by a
paw-stroke, and he lay lifeless on deck. Jocki, hatchet in hand,
was with difficulty parrying the blows of the second bear which
had just killed Aupic. The anim