cided that the ammunition would be exhausted before I acquired
the necessary knowledge. I had used eight shells for lighting fires
before I hit upon the device of banking the embers with wet moss, and
there remained not over a hundred shells in the box.

"We must club the seals," I announced, when convinced of my poor
marksmanship. "I have heard the sealers talk about clubbing them."

"They are so pretty," she objected. "I cannot bear to think of it being
done. It is so directly brutal, you know; so different from shooting
them."

"That roof must go on," I answered grimly. "Winter is almost here. It
is our lives against theirs. It is unfortunate we haven't plenty of
ammunition, but I think, anyway, that they suffer less from being clubbed
than from being all shot up. Besides, I shall do the clubbing."

"That's just it," she began eagerly, and broke off in sudden confusion.

"Of course," I began, "if you prefer--"

"But what shall I be doing?" she interrupted, with that softness I knew
full well to be insistence.

"Gathering firewood and cooking dinner," I answered lightly.

She shook her head. "It is too dangerous for you to attempt alone."

"I know, I know," she waived my protest. "I am only a weak woman, but
just my small assistance may enable you to escape disaster."

"But the clubbing?" I suggested.

"Of course, you will do that. I shall probably scream. I'll look away
when--"

"The danger is most serious," I laughed.

"I shall use my judgment when to look and when not to look," she replied
with a grand air.

The upshot of the affair was that she accompanied me next morning. I
rowed into the adjoining cove and up to the edge of the beach. There
were seals all about us in the water, and the bellowing thousands on the
beach compelled us to shout at each other to make ourselves heard.

"I know men club them," I said, trying to reassure myself, and gazing
doubtfully at a large bull, not thirty feet away, upreared on his
fore-flippers and regarding me intently. "But the question is, How do
they club them?"

"Let us gather tundra grass and thatch the roof," Maud said.

She was as frightened as I at the prospect, and we had reason to be
gazing at close range at the gleaming teeth and dog-like mouths.

"I always thought they were afraid of men," I said.

"How do I know they are not afraid?" I queried a moment later, after
having rowed a few more strokes along the beach. "Perhaps, if I w