ying away over the ice. The moment he felt the blow he sat down and
looked at me. I was just taking to my heels when he got up; I don't
know whether it was to grip me again or what it was for, but anyhow
at that minute he caught sight of a dog coming and set off after it,
and I got on board.'

"'Did you scream, Peter?'

"'Scream! I screamed with all my might.'

"And apparently this was true, for he was quite hoarse.

"'But where was Mogstad all this time?'

"'Well, you see, he had reached the ship long before me, but he
never thought of running down and giving the alarm, but takes his gun
from the round-house wall and thinks he'll manage all right alone;
but his gun wouldn't go off, and the bear would have had time to eat
me up before his nose.'

"We were now near the ship, and Mogstad, who had heard the last
part of the story from the deck, corrected it in so far that he had
just reached the gangway when Peter began to roar. He jumped up and
fell back three times before he got on board, and had no time to do
anything then but seize his gun and go to Peter's assistance.

"When the bear left Peter and rushed after the dogs he soon had the
whole pack about him again. Now he would make a spring and get one
below him; but then all the rest would set upon him and jump on his
back, so that he had to turn to defend himself. Then he would spring
upon another dog, and the whole pack would be on him again. And so
the dance went on, backward and forward over the ice, until they were
once more close to the ship. A dog stood there, below the gangway,
wanting to get on board; the bear made a spring on it, and it was
there, by the ship's side, that the villain met his fate.

"An examination on board showed that the hook of 'Svarten's' leash
was pulled out quite straight; 'Gammelen's' was broken through; but
the third dog's was only wrenched a little; it hardly looked as if
the bear had done it. I had a slight hope that this dog might still
be in life, but, though we searched well, we could not find it.

"It was altogether a deplorable story. To think that we should have let
a bear scramble on board like this, and should have lost three dogs at
once! Our dogs are dwindling down; we have only 26 now. That was a wily
demon of a bear, to be such a little one. He had crawled on board by
the gangway, shoved away a box that was standing in front of it, taken
the dog that stood nearest, and gone off with it. When he had satisfied
t