ere to
step boldly ashore, they would cut for it, and I could not catch up with
one." And still I hesitated.

"I heard of a man, once, who invaded the nesting grounds of wild geese,"
Maud said. "They killed him."

"The geese?"

"Yes, the geese. My brother told me about it when I was a little girl."

"But I know men club them," I persisted.

"I think the tundra grass will make just as good a roof," she said.

Far from her intention, her words were maddening me, driving me on. I
could not play the coward before her eyes. "Here goes," I said, backing
water with one oar and running the bow ashore.

I stepped out and advanced valiantly upon a long-maned bull in the midst
of his wives. I was armed with the regular club with which the
boat-pullers killed the wounded seals gaffed aboard by the hunters. It
was only a foot and a half long, and in my superb ignorance I never
dreamed that the club used ashore when raiding the rookeries measured
four to five feet. The cows lumbered out of my way, and the distance
between me and the bull decreased. He raised himself on his flippers
with an angry movement. We were a dozen feet apart. Still I advanced
steadily, looking for him to turn tail at any moment and run.

At six feet the panicky thought rushed into my mind, What if he will not
run? Why, then I shall club him, came the answer. In my fear I had
forgotten that I was there to get the bull instead of to make him run.
And just then he gave a snort and a snarl and rushed at me. His eyes
were blazing, his mouth was wide open; the teeth gleamed cruelly white.
Without shame, I confess that it was I who turned and footed it. He ran
awkwardly, but he ran well. He was but two paces behind when I tumbled
into the boat, and as I shoved off with an oar his teeth crunched down
upon the blade. The stout wood was crushed like an egg-shell. Maud and
I were astounded. A moment later he had dived under the boat, seized the
keel in his mouth, and was shaking the boat violently.

"My!" said Maud. "Let's go back."

I shook my head. "I can do what other men have done, and I know that
other men have clubbed seals. But I think I'll leave the bulls alone
next time."

"I wish you wouldn't," she said.

"Now don't say, 'Please, please,'" I cried, half angrily, I do believe.

She made no reply, and I knew my tone must have hurt her.

"I beg your pardon," I said, or shouted, rather, in order to make myself
heard above the