ame place, continually sniffing
the air.

CHAPTER V.
THE SEAL AND THE BEAR.

Hatteras and the doctor went back to the house.

"You know," said the captain, "that the polar bears chase seals, which
are their principal food. They watch for days at their
breathing-holes, and seize them the moment they come upon the ice. So
a bear will not be afraid of a seal; far from it."

"I understand your plan," said the doctor, "but it's dangerous."

"But there is a chance of success," answered the captain, "and we must
try it. I am going to put on the sealskin and crawl over the ice. Let
us lose no time. Load the gun and give it to me."

The doctor had nothing to say; he would himself have done what his
companion was about to try; he left the house, carrying two axes, one
for Johnson, the other for himself; then, accompanied by Hatteras, he
went to the sledge.

There Hatteras put on the sealskin, which very nearly covered him.
Meanwhile, Hatteras loaded the gun with the last charge of powder, and
dropped in it the quicksilver bullet, which was as hard as steel and
as heavy as lead. Then he handed Hatteras the gun, which he hid
beneath the sealskin. Then he said to the doctor,--

"You go and join Johnson; I shall wait a few moments to puzzle the
enemy."

"Courage, Hatteras!" said the doctor.

"Don't be uneasy, and above all don't show yourselves before you hear
my gun."

The doctor soon reached the hummock which concealed Johnson.

"Well?" the latter asked.

"Well, we must wait. Hatteras is doing all this to save us."

The doctor was agitated; he looked at the bear, which had grown
excited, as if he had become conscious of the danger which threatened
him. A quarter of an hour later the seal was crawling over the ice; he
made a circuit of a quarter of a mile to baffle the bear; then he
found himself within three hundred feet of him. The bear then saw him,
and settled down as if he were trying to hide. Hatteras imitated
skilfully the movements of a seal, and if he had not known, the doctor
would certainly have taken him for one.

"That's true!" whispered Johnson.

The seal, as he approached the bear, did not appear to see him; he
seemed to be seeking some hole through which to reach the water. The
bear advanced towards him over the ice with the utmost caution; his
eager eyes betrayed his excitement; for one or perhaps two months he
had been fasting, and fortune was now throwing a sure prey before him.
The