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twg_000012589200 | heart of them, he might have found it extremely difficult to find his way out again. Anxious not to lose his chance, he gave vent to a loud shout. This had the effect of setting up innumerable flocks of wild-fowl, which, although unseen, had been lurking listeners to the strange though gentle sound of the water-tramp. ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589201 | grey goose with one or two unexpected comrades. Benjy had not at that time acquired the power of self-restraint necessary to good shooting. He fired hastily, and missed with the first barrel. Discharging the second in hotter haste, he missed again, but brought down one of the comrades by accident. This was sufficiently... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589202 | on the boat-buoy in front of him to balance several ducks which already lay on the part in rear. He might have carried a dozen geese on his novel hunting-dress, if there had been room for them, for its floating power was sufficient to have borne up himself, and at least four, if not five, men. Pursuing his way cautious... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589203 | and gently, by means of the webbed feet alone, the young sportsman moved about like a sly water-spirit among the reeds, sometimes addressing a few pleasant words, such as, "how d'ye do, old boy," or, "don't alarm yourself, my tulip," to a water-hen or a coot, or some such bird which crossed his path, but was unworthy o... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589204 | at other times stopping to gaze contemplatively through the reed stems, or to float and rest in placid enjoyment, while he tried to imagine himself in a forest of water-trees. Everywhere the feathered tribes first gazed at him in mute surprise; then hurried, with every variety of squeak, and quack, and fluttering wing,... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589205 | in sight of a bird so large that his heart gave a violent leap, and the gun went almost of its own accord to his shoulder, but the creature disappeared among the reeds before he could take aim. Another opening, however, again revealed it fully to view! It was a swan--a hyperborean wild swan! Just as he made this discov... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589206 | the great bird, having observed Benjy, spread its enormous wings and made off with an amazing splutter. Bang! went Benjy's gun, both barrels in quick succession, and down fell the swan quite dead, with its head in the water and its feet pointing to the sky. "What a feast the Eskimos will have to-night!" was Benjy's fir... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589207 | tramped vehemently towards his prize. But his overflowing joy was rudely checked, for, having laid his gun down in front of him, for the purpose of using the paddle with both hands, it slipped to one side, tilted up, and, disappearing like an arrow in the lake, went to the bottom. The sinking of Benjy's heart was not l... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589208 | He had the presence of mind, however, to seize the reeds near him and check his progress at the exact spot. Leaning over the side of his little craft, he beheld his weapon quivering, as it were, at the bottom, in about eight feet of water. What was to be done? The energetic youth was not long in making up | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589209 | his mind on that point. He would dive for it. But diving in the water-tramp was out of the question. Knowing that it was all but impossible to make his way to the shore through the reeds, he resolved to reach the opposite shore, which was in some places free from vegetation. Seizing one of the reeds, he forced it | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589210 | down, and tied it into a knot to mark the spot where his loss had happened. He treated several more reeds in this way till he gained the open water outside, thus marking his path. Then he paddled across the lake, landed, undressed, and swam out again, pushing the empty dress before him, intending to use it as a resting... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589211 | On reaching the spot, he dived with a degree of vigour and agility worthy of a duck, but found it hard to reach the bottom, as he was not much accustomed to diving. For the same reason he found it difficult to open his eyes under water, so as to look for the gun. While trying to do so, a | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589212 | desperate desire to breathe caused him to leap to the surface, where he found that he had struggled somewhat away from the exact spot. After a few minutes' rest, he took a long breath and again went down; but found, to his dismay, that in his first dive he had disturbed the mud, and thus made the water thick. Groping | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589213 | about rendered it thicker, and he came to the surface the second time with feelings approaching to despair. Besides which, his powers were being rapidly exhausted. But Benjy was full of pluck as well as perseverance. Feeling that he could not hold out much longer, he resolved to make the next attempt with more care--a ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589214 | which it would have been better to have made at first. He swam to the knotted reed, considered well the position he had occupied when his loss occurred, took an aim at a definite spot with his head, and went down. The result was that his hands grasped the stock of the gun the moment they reached the bottom. Inflated | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589215 | with joy he leaped with it to the surface like a bladder; laid it carefully on the water-dress, and pushing the latter before him soon succeeded in getting hold of the dead swan. The bird was too heavy to be lifted on the float, he therefore grasped its neck with his teeth, and thus, heavily weighted, made for the shor... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589216 | It will not surprise the reader to be told that Benjy felt hungry as well as tired after these achievements, and this induced him to look anxiously for Leo, and to wonder why the smoke of Oblooria's cooking-lamp was not to be seen anywhere. The engrossing nature of the events just described had prevented our little her... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589217 | a smart breeze had sprung up, and that heavy clouds had begun to drive across the hitherto blue sky, while appearances of a very squally nature were gathering on the windward horizon. Moreover, while engaged in paddling among the reeds he had not felt the breeze. It was while taking off the water-tramp that he became f... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589218 | facts. "That's it," he muttered to himself. "They've been caught by this breeze and been delayed by having had to pull against it, or perhaps the walruses gave them more trouble than they expected." Appeasing his appetite as well as he could with this reflection, he left the water-tramp on the ground, with the dripping... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589219 | to the highest part of the island. Although not much of an elevation, it enabled him to see all round, and a feeling of anxiety filled his breast as he observed that the once glassy sea was ruffled to the colour of indigo, while wavelets flecked it everywhere, and no boat was visible! "They may have got behind some of | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589220 | the islands," he thought, and continued his look-out for some time, with growing anxiety and impatience, however, because the breeze was by that time freshening to a gale. When an hour had passed away the poor boy became thoroughly alarmed. "Can anything have happened to the boat?" he said to himself. "The india-rubber... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589221 | been blown out to sea!" This latter thought caused an involuntary shudder. Looking round, he observed that the depression of the sun towards the horizon indicated that night had set in. "This will never do," he suddenly exclaimed aloud. "Leo will be lost. I _must_ risk it!" Turning as he spoke, he ran back to the spot ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589222 | left the water-dress, which he immediately put on. Then, leaving gun and game on the beach, he boldly entered the sea, and struck out with feet and paddle for Poloeland. Although sorely buffeted by the rising waves, and several times overwhelmed, his waterproof costume proved well able to bear him up, and with comparat... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589223 | in less than two hours. Without waiting to take the dress off, he ran up to the Eskimo village and gave the alarm. While these events were going on among the islets, Captain Vane and Alphonse Vandervell had been far otherwise engaged. "Come, Alf," said the Captain, that same morning, after Leo and his party had started... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589224 | "let you and me go off on a scientific excursion,--on what we may style a botanico-geologico-meteorological survey." "With all my heart, uncle, and let us take Butterface with us, and Oolichuk." "Ay, lad, and Ivitchuk and Akeetolik too, and Chingatok if you will, for I've fixed on a spot whereon to pitch an observatory... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589225 | on it without further delay. Indeed I would have got it into working order long ago if it had not been for my hope that the cessation of this miserable war would have enabled us to get nearer the North Pole this summer." The party soon started for the highest peak of the island of Poloe--or Poloeland, as Alf preferred | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589226 | to call it. Oolichuk carried on his broad shoulders one of those mysterious cases out of which the Captain was so fond of taking machines wherewith to astonish the natives. Indeed it was plain to see that the natives who accompanied them on this occasion expected some sort of surprise, despite the Captain's earnest ass... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589227 | the box except a few meteorological instruments. How the Captain translated to the Eskimos the word meteorological we have never been able to ascertain. His own explanation is that he did it in a roundabout manner which they failed to comprehend, and which he himself could not elucidate. On the way up the hill, Alf mad... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589228 | plants which were quite new to him. "Ho! stop, I say, uncle," he exclaimed for the twentieth time that day, as he picked up some object of interest. "What now, lad?" said the Captain, stopping and wiping his heated brow. "Here is another specimen of these petrifactions--look!" "He means a vegetable o' some sort turned ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589229 | Captain, as he examined the specimen with an interested though unscientific eye. "You remember, uncle, the explanation I gave you some time ago," said the enthusiastic Alf, "about Professor Heer of Zurich, who came to the conclusion that primeval forests once existed in these now treeless Arctic regions, from the fossi... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589230 | Well, I found a fossil of a plane leaf the other day,--not a very good one, to be sure--and now, here is a splendid specimen of a petrified oak-leaf. Don't you trace it quite plainly?" "Well, lad," returned the Captain, frowning at the specimen, "I do believe you're right. There does seem to be the mark of a leaf there... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589231 | and there is some ground for your theory that this land may have been once covered with trees, though it's hard to believe that when we look at it." "An evidence, uncle, that we should not be too ready to judge by appearances," said Alf, as they resumed their upward march. The top gained, a space was quickly selected a... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589232 | cleared, and a simple hut of flat stones begun, while the Captain unpacked his box. It contained a barometer, a maximum and minimum self-registering thermometer, wet and dry bulb, also a black bulb thermometer, a one-eighth-inch rain-gauge, and several other instruments. "I have another box of similar instruments, Alf,... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589233 | "and I hope, by comparing the results obtained up here with those obtained at the level of the sea, to carry home a series of notes which will be of considerable value to science." When the Captain had finished laying them out, the Eskimos retired to a little distance, and regarded them for some minutes with anxious ex... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589234 | the strange things did not burst, or go up like sky-rockets, they soon returned with a somewhat disappointed look to their hut-building. The work was quickly completed, for Eskimos are expert builders in their way, and the instruments had been carefully set up under shelter when the first symptoms of the storm began. "... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589235 | the Captain, looking gravely round the horizon. "No doubt they have," said Alf, preparing to descend the mountain. "Leo is not naturally reckless, and if he were, the cautious Anders would be a drag on him." An hour later they regained the Eskimo village, just as Benjy came running, in a state of dripping consternation... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589236 | be said that an instant and vigorous search was instituted? Not only did a band of the stoutest warriors, headed by Chingatok, set off in a fleet of kayaks, but the Captain and his companions started without delay in the two remaining india-rubber boats, and, flying their kites, despite the risk of doing so in a gale, ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589237 | eager haste over the foaming billows. After exerting themselves to the uttermost, they failed to discover the slightest trace of the lost boat. The storm passed quickly, and a calm succeeded, enabling them to prosecute the search more effectively with oar and paddle, but with no better result. Day after day passed, and... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589238 | Eskimo--would relax his efforts, or admit that hope was sinking. But they had to admit it at last, and, after three weeks of unremitting toil, they were compelled to give up in absolute despair. The most sanguine was driven to the terrible conclusion that Leo, Anders, and timid little Oblooria were lost. It was an awfu... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589239 | or the Captain now for discovery, or scientific investigation! The poor negro, who had never at any time cared for plants, rocks, or Poles, was sunk in the profoundest depths of sorrow. Benjy's gay spirit was utterly broken. Oolichuk's hearty laugh was silenced, and a cloud of settled melancholy descended over the enti... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589240 | OF THE LOST ONES. Leo, Anders, and timid little Oblooria, however, were not lost! Their case was bad enough, but it had not quite come to that. On parting from Benjy, as described in the last chapter, these three went after a walrus, which coquetted with them instead of attacking, and drew them a considerable distance ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589241 | This would have been a matter of trifling import if the weather had remained calm, but, as we have seen, a sudden and violent gale arose. When the coming squall was first observed the boat was far to leeward of Paradise Isle, and as that island happened to be one of the most northerly of the group over which Amalatok | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589242 | ruled, they were thus far to leeward of any land with the exception of a solitary sugar-loaf rock near the horizon. Still Leo and his companions were not impressed with any sense of danger. They had been so long accustomed to calms, and to moving about in the india-rubber boats by means of paddles with perfect ease and... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589243 | they had half forgotten the force of wind. Besides, the walrus was still playing with them provokingly--keeping just out of rifle-shot as if he had studied fire-arms and knew their range exactly. "The rascal!" exclaimed Leo at last, losing patience, "he will never let us come an inch nearer." "Try 'im once more," said ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589244 | "push him, paddle strong. Ho! Oblooria, paddle hard and queek." Although the interpreter, being in a facetious mood, addressed Oblooria in English, she quite understood his significant gestures, and bent to her work with a degree of energy and power quite surprising in one apparently so fragile. Leo also used his oars,... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589245 | such good-will that the boat skimmed over the Arctic sea like a northern diver, and the distance between them and the walrus was perceptibly lessened. "I don't like the looks o' the southern sky," said Leo, regarding the horizon with knitted brows. "Hims black 'nough--any'ow," said Anders. "Hold. I'll have a farewell s... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589246 | chase," said Leo, laying down the oars and grasping his rifle. The ball seemed to take effect, for the walrus dived immediately with a violent splutter, and was seen no more. By this time the squall was hissing towards them so fast that the hunters, giving up all thought of the walrus, turned at once and made for the l... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589247 | but land by that time lay far off on the southern horizon with a dark foam-flecked sea between it and them. "There's no fear of the boat, Oblooria," said Leo, glancing over his shoulder at the girl, who sat crouching to meet the first burst of the coming storm, "but you must hold on tight to the life-lines." There was | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589248 | no need to caution Anders. That worthy was already on his knees embracing a thwart--his teeth clenched as he gazed over the bow. On it came like a whirlwind of the tropics, and rushed right over the low round gunwale of the boat, sweeping loose articles overboard, and carrying her bodily to leeward. Leo had taken a tur... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589249 | life-lines round both thighs, and held manfully to his oars. These, after stooping to the first rush of wind and water, he plied with all his might, and was ably seconded by Oblooria as well as by the interpreter, but a very few minutes of effort sufficed to convince them that they laboured in vain. They did not even "... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589250 | their own," as sailors have it, but drifted slowly, yet steadily, to the north. "It's impossible to make head against _this_," said Leo, suddenly ceasing his efforts, "and I count it a piece of good fortune, for which we cannot be too thankful, that there is still land to leeward of us." He pointed to the sugar-loaf ro... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589251 | towards which they were now rapidly drifting. "Nothing to eat dere. Nothing to drink," said Anders, gloomily. "Oh! that won't matter much. A squall like this can't last long. We shall soon be able to start again for home, no doubt. I say, Anders, what are these creatures off the point there? They seem too large and bla... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589252 | and not the shape of seals or walruses." The interpreter gazed earnestly at the objects in question for some moments without answering. The rock which they were quickly nearing was rugged, barren, and steep on its southern face, against which the waves were by that time dashing with extreme violence, so that landing th... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589253 | its lee or northern side, however they might count on quiet water. "We have nothing to fear," said Leo, observing that Oblooria was much agitated; "tell her so, Anders; we are sure to find a sheltered creek of some sort on the other side." "I fear not the rocks or storm," replied the Eskimo girl to Anders. "It is Graba... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589254 | the chief of Flatland, that I fear." "Grabantak!" exclaimed Anders and Leo in the same breath. "Grabantak is coming with his men!" Poor little Oblooria, whose face had paled while her whole frame trembled, pointed towards the dark objects which had already attracted their attention. They were by that time near enough t... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589255 | after another, round the western point of Sugar-loaf rock, it was all too evident that the girl was right, and that the fleet of kayaks was probably bearing the northern savage and his men to attack the inhabitants of Poloe. Leo's first impulse was to seize his repeating rifle and fill its cartridge-chamber quite full.... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589256 | observe here that the cartridges, being carried in a tight waterproof case, had not been affected by the seas which had so recently overwhelmed them. "What's de use?" asked Anders, in an unusually sulky tone, as he watched the youth's action. "Two men not can fight all de mans of Flatland." "No, but I can pick off a do... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589257 | them, one after another, with my good rifle, and then the rest will fly. Grabantak will fall first, and his best men after him." This was no idle boast on the part of Leo. He knew that he could accomplish what he threatened long before the Eskimos could get within spear-throwing distance of his boat. "No use," repeated... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589258 | still shaking his head in a sulky manner. "When you's bullets be done, more an' more inimies come on. Then dey kill you, an' me, an' Oblooria." Leo laid down his weapon. The resolve to die fighting to the last was the result of a mere impulse of animal courage. Second thoughts cooled him, and the reference to Oblooria'... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589259 | decided him. "You are right, Anders. If by fighting to the death I could save Oblooria, it would be my duty as well as my pleasure to fight; but I see that I haven't the ghost of a chance against such a host as is approaching, and it would be simply revengeful to send as many as I can into | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589260 | the next world before going there myself. Besides, it would exasperate the savages, and make them harder on the poor girl." In saying this Leo was rather arguing out the point with himself than talking to the interpreter, who did not indeed understand much of what he said. Having made up his mind how to act, Leo stowed... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589261 | rifle and ammunition in a small bag placed for that purpose under one of the thwarts, and, resuming the oars, prepared to meet his fate, whatever it should be, peacefully and unarmed. While thus drifting in silence before the gale, the thought suddenly occurred to Leo, "How strange it is that I, who am a Christian--in ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589262 | as if it were absurd to pray for God's help at such a time as this! Surely He who made me and these Eskimos is capable of guarding us? The very least we can do is to ask Him to guide us!" The youth was surprised at the thought. It had flashed upon him like a ray of light. It | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589263 | was not the first time that he had been in even more imminent danger than the present, yet he had never before thought of the necessity of asking help from God, as if He were really present and able as well as willing to succour. Before the thought had passed he acted on it. He had no time for formal | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589264 | prayer. He looked up! It was prayer without words. In a few minutes more the boat was surrounded by the fleet of kayaks. There were hundreds of these tiny vessels of the north, each with its solitary occupant, using his double-bladed paddle vigorously. Need we say that the strangers were at first gazed on with speechle... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589265 | Eskimos kept for some time hovering round them at a respectful distance, as if uncertain how to act, but with their war-spears ready? All the time the whole party drifted before the gale towards the island-rock. "Anders," said Leo, while the natives remained in this state of indecision, "my mind is made up as to our co... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589266 | will offer no resistance whatever to these fellows. We must be absolutely submissive, unless, indeed, they attempt to ill-treat Oblooria, in which case of course we will defend her. Do you hear?" This was said with such quiet decision, and the concluding question was put in such a tone, that the interpreter replied, "Y... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589267 | sign of any kind, but continued to guide the boat steadily with the oars, as if his sole anxiety was to round the western point of the island and get into a place of shelter, the natives turned their kayaks and advanced along with him. Naturally they fell into the position of an escort--a part of the fleet paddling on | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589268 | each side of the captives, (for such they now were), while the rest brought up the rear. "What ails Oblooria, Anders?" asked Leo in a low tone. "What is the matter?" asked the interpreter, turning to the girl, who, ever since the approach of the Eskimos, had crouched like a bundle in the bottom of the boat with her fac... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589269 | buried in her hands. "There is no fear. Grabantak is a man, not a bear. He will not eat you." "Grabantak knows me," answered the poor girl, without lifting her head; "he came to Poloe once, before the war, and wanted me to be the wife of his son. I want not his son. I want Oolichuk!" The simplicity and | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589270 | candour of this confession caused Leo to laugh in spite of himself, while poor little Oblooria, who thought it no laughing matter, burst into tears. Of course the men of Flatland kept their eyes fixed in wide amazement on Leo, as they paddled along, and this sudden laugh of his impressed them deeply, being apparently w... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589271 | it was with an air of absolute indifference to his probable fate, and to the presence of so many foes. Even the ruthless land-hungerer, Grabantak, was solemnised. In a few minutes the whole party swept round the point of rocks, and proceeded towards the land over the comparatively quiet waters of a little bay which lay... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589272 | the Sugar-loaf rock. During the brief period that had been afforded for thought, Leo had been intently making his plans. He now proceeded to carry them out. "Hand me the trinket-bundle," he said to Anders. The interpreter searched in a waterproof pouch in the stern of the boat, and produced a small bundle of such trink... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589273 | be valued by savages. It had been placed and was always kept there by Captain Vane, to be ready for emergencies. "They will be sure to take everything from us at any rate," remarked Leo, as he divided the trinkets into two separate bundles, "so I shall take the wind out of their sails by giving everything up at once | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589274 | with a good grace." The Grabantaks, if we may so style them, drew near, as the fleet approached the shore, with increasing curiosity. When land was reached they leaped out of their kayaks and crowded round the strangers. It is probable that they would have seized them and their possessions at this point, but the tall s... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589275 | and his quiet manner, overawed them. They held back while the india-rubber boat was being carried by Leo and Anders to a position of safety. Poor Oblooria walked beside them with her head bowed down, shrinking as much as possible out of sight. Everybody was so taken up with the strange white man that no one took any no... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589276 | her. No sooner was the boat laid down than Leo taking one of the bundles of trinkets stepped up to Grabantak, whom he easily distinguished by his air of superiority and the deference paid him by his followers. Pulling his own nose by way of a friendly token, Leo smiled benignantly in the chief's face, and opened the bu... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589277 | him. It is needless to say that delight mingled with the surprise that had hitherto blazed on the visage of Grabantak. "Come here, Anders, and bring the other bundle with you. Tell this warrior that I am very glad to meet with him." "Great and unconquerable warrior," began the interpreter, in the dialect which he had f... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589278 | the men of Poloe, "we have come from far-off lands to bring you gifts--" "Anders," said Leo, whose knowledge of the Eskimo tongue was sufficient, by that time, to enable him in a measure to follow the drift of a speech, "Anders, if you don't tell him _exactly_ what I say I'll kick you into the sea!" As Anders stood | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589279 | on a rock close to the water's edge, and Leo looked unusually stern, he thereafter rendered faithfully what the latter told him to say. The speech was something to the following effect:-- "I am one of a small band of white men who have come here to search out the land. We do not want the land. We only want | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589280 | to see it. We have plenty of land of our own in the far south. We have been staying with the great chief Amalatok in Poloeland." At the mention of his enemy's name the countenance of Grabantak darkened. Without noticing this, Leo went on:-- "When I was out hunting with my man and a woman, the wind arose and blew | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589281 | us hither. We claim your hospitality, and hope you will help us to get back again to Poloeland. If you do so we will reward you well, for white men are powerful and rich. See, here are gifts for Grabantak, and for his wife." This latter remark was a sort of inspiration. Leo had observed, while Anders was speaking, that | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589282 | a stout cheerful-faced woman had been pushing aside the men and gradually edging her way toward the Eskimo chief with the air of a privileged person. That he had hit the mark was obvious, for Grabantak turned with a bland smile, and hit his wife a facetious and rather heavy slap on the shoulder. She was evidently accus... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589283 | treatment, and did not wince. Taking from his bundle a gorgeous smoking-cap richly ornamented with brilliant beads, Leo coolly crowned the chief with it. Grabantak drew himself up and tried to look majestic, but a certain twitching of his face, and sparkle in his eyes, betrayed a tendency to laugh with delight. Fortuna... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589284 | same pattern in the bundle, which Leo instantly placed on the head of the wife--whose name he afterwards learned was Merkut. The chief's assumed dignity vanished at this. With that childlike hilarity peculiar to the Eskimo race, he laughed outright, and then, seizing the cap from Merkut's head, put it above his own to ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589285 | Leo then selected a glittering clasp-knife with two blades, which the chief seized eagerly. It was evidently a great prize--too serious a gift to be lightly laughed at. Then a comb was presented to the wife, and a string of gay beads, and a pair of scissors. Of course the uses of combs and scissors had he explained, an... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589286 | was the interest manifested during the explanation, and utter the forgetfulness of the whole party for the time being in regard to everything else in the world--Oblooria included, who sat unnoticed on the rocks with her face still buried in her hands. When Grabantak's possessions were so numerous that the hood of his c... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589287 | boots were nearly filled with them, he became generous, and, prince-like, (having more than he knew what to do with), began to distribute things to his followers. Among these followers was a tall and stalwart son of his own, to whom he was rather stern, and not very liberal. Perhaps the chief wished to train him with S... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589288 | self-denial. Perhaps he wanted his followers to note his impartiality. Merkut did not, however, act on the same principles, for she quietly passed a number of valuable articles over to her dear son Koyatuk, unobserved by his stern father. Things had gone on thus pleasantly for some time; the novelty of the gifts, and t... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589289 | apparently rendered these people forgetful of the fact that they might take them all at once; when a sudden change in the state of affairs was wrought by the utterance of one word. "We must not," said Leo to Anders, looking at his follower over the heads of the Eskimos, "forget poor little Oblooria." "Oblooria!" roared... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589290 | as if he had been electrified. "Oblooria!" echoed Koyatuk, glaring round. "Oblooria!" gasped the entire band. Another moment and Grabantak, bursting through the crowd, leaped towards the crouching girl and raised her face. Recognising her he uttered a yell which probably was meant for a cheer. Hurrying the frightened g... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589291 | presented her to his son, and, with an air worthy of a civilised courtier, said:-- "Your _wife_, Koyatuk--your Oblooria!--Looria!" He went over the last syllables several times, as if he doubted his senses, and feared it was too good news to be true. This formal introduction was greeted by the chief's followers with a ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589292 | demonstrations of extreme joy. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. A FIGHT IN DEFENCE OF WOMAN, AND RIFLE-SHOOTING EXTRAORDINARY. When the excitement had somewhat abated, Leo stepped to the side of Oblooria, and laying his hand on her shoulder said firmly, through Anders:-- "Pardon me, Grabantak, this girl is _not_ the wife of Koyatuk... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589293 | teeth, and grasped a spear-- "When did Kablunet men begin to have Eskimo sisters?" "When they took all distressed women under their protection," returned Leo promptly. "Every woman who needs my help is my sister," he added with a look of self-sufficiency which he was far from feeling. This new doctrine obviously puzzle... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589294 | at the ground, as if in meditation. It seemed to afford great comfort to Oblooria, who nestled closer to her champion. As for Koyatuk, he treated the matter with an air of mingled surprise and scorn, but dutifully awaited his father's pleasure. Koyatuk was physically a fine specimen of a savage, but his spirit was not ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589295 | Like his father he was over six feet high, and firmly knit, being of both larger and stronger build than Leo, whom he now regarded, and of course hated, as his rival--a contemptible one, no doubt; still--a rival. The warriors watched their chief in breathless suspense. To them it was a thoroughly new and interesting si... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589296 | tall and active, but slender and very young, should dare single-handed to defy not only their chief, but, as it were, the entire tribe, including the royal family, was a state of things in regard to which their previous lives afforded no parallel. They could not understand it at all, and stood, as it were, in eager, op... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589297 | expectation. At last Grabantak looked up, as if smitten by a new idea, and spoke-- "Can Kablunet men fight?" he asked. "They love peace better than war," answered Leo, "but when they see cause to fight they can do so." Turning immediately to his son, Grabantak said with a grim smile-- "Behold your wife, take her!" Koya... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589298 | Oblooria behind him, and, being unarmed, threw himself into a pugilistic posture of defence. The young Eskimo laid one of his strong hands on the Englishman's shoulder, intending to thrust him aside violently. Leo was naturally of a tender disposition. He shrank from dealing a violent blow to one who had not the remote... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012589299 | how to defend himself from the human fist when used as a battering-ram. But Leo chanced to be, in a sense, doubly armed. During one of his holiday rambles in England he had visited Cornwall, and there had learned that celebrated "throw" which consists in making your haunch a fulcrum, your right arm a lever, and your ad... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
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