ace for you to land.

"You must be ready, and when I give the word jump from your ice raft on
to the solid ice."

Then Kesshoo threw his harpoon, and Menie drove it into the ice with
all his might. Slowly Kesshoo drew the line taut, turned his kyak
round, and started for the shore. The journey out had been dangerous,
but the journey back was much more so, for Kesshoo could not dodge the
floating ice nearly so well. He had to pick his way carefully through
the clearest water he could find. Very cautiously they moved toward
shore.

V.

They were getting quite near the place where the ice had broken with
Menie, when suddenly, right near them, they saw the head and great,
round eyes of a seal! It was the seal mother.

She had come back to find her breathing hole and her baby.

The moment Kesshoo saw her he seized his dart, which lay in its place
on top of his kyak, and threw it with all his might at the seal.

The seal dived down into the sea, but a bladder full of air was
attached to the line on the dart, and this bladder floated on the
water, so Kesshoo could tell by watching it just where the seal was.

Kesshoo knew he had struck the seal, and although he was already towing
the ice raft, he was determined to bring home the big seal, too!

He called to Menie. "Sit still and wait until I come for you."

Then he quickly cut the harpoon line by which he was towing the ice
raft, and set it adrift again. As soon as he was free he paddled away
after the bladder, which was now bobbing along over the water at some
little distance from the boat.

Menie sat perfectly still and watched his father. Kesshoo reached the
bladder and began to pull on the line, but just at that moment the big
seal turned round and swam right under the kyak!

In a second the kyak turned bottom side up in the water! Menie
screamed. The people watching on the shore gave a great howl, and
Koko's father started up the beach after his own kyak.

He thought perhaps Kesshoo could not manage both the ice raft and the
seal, and he meant to go to help him.

But in one second Kesshoo was right side up again. No water could get
into the kyak because Kesshoo's skin coat was drawn tight over the hole
in the deck, and Kesshoo was in the coat!

Kesshoo often turned somersaults in the water in that way. Sometimes he
even did it for fun! He said afterward that he could have turned the
boat right side up again with just his nose, without using either his