Red Rooney: The Last of the Crew Part 37

"Halo, Ippe, what's wrong with you?"

A groan was the reply, and Rooney, although somewhat anxious, found it difficult to restrain a laugh.

"I've got--oh! oh! oh! oh!--a mad tooth," gasped the poor youth.

"A mad tooth! Poor fellow!--we call that _toothache_ where I come from."

"What care I whether you call it mad tooth or _tootik_?" cried Ippegoo petulantly. "It is horrible! dreadful! awful!--like fire and fury in the heart."

The sufferer used one or two more Eskimo expressions, suggestive of excruciating agony, which are not translatable into English.

"If I only had a pair of pincers, but--look, Ippe, look," said Rooney, pointing to the sea, in the hope of distracting his mind from present pain by referring to threatening danger; "look--our kayaks being lost, we have no hope of escaping, so we must starve."

His little device, well-meant though it was, failed. A groan and glance of indifference was the Eskimo's reply, for starvation and danger were familiar and prospective evils, whereas toothache was a present horror.

We fear it must be told of Ippegoo that he was not celebrated for endurance of pain, and that, being fond of sympathy, he was apt to give full vent to his feelings--the result, perhaps, of having an over-indulgent mother. Toothache--one of the diseases to which Greenlanders are peculiarly liable--invariably drew forth Ippegoo's tenderest feelings for himself, accompanied by touching lamentations.

"Come, Ippe, be more of a man. Even your mother would scold you for groaning like that."

"But it is so shriekingly bad!" returned the afflicted youth, with increasing petulance.

"Of course it is. I know that; poor fellow! But come, I will try to cure you," said Rooney, who, under the impression that violent physical exertion coupled with distraction of mind would produce good effect, had suddenly conceived a simple ruse. "Do you see yon jutting ice-cliff that runs down to a point near the edge of the berg?"

"Yes, I see," whimpered Ippegoo.

"Well, it will require you to run at your top speed to get there while you count fifteen twenties. Now, if you run there within that time--at your very top speed, mind--" Rooney paused, and looked serious.

"Yes; well?" said Ippegoo, whose curiosity had already begun to check the groans.

"If you run there," continued the seaman, with a look and tone of deep solemnity, "at the very toppest speed that you can do, and look round that ice-point, you will see--"

"What?" gasped Ippegoo excitedly--for he was easily excited.

"_Something_," returned Rooney mysteriously. "I cannot tell exactly what you will see, because I am not an angekok, and have no torngak to tell me; but I am quite sure that you will see _something_! Only, the benefit of seeing it will depend on your running as fast as you can.

Now, are you ready?"

"Yes, quite ready," exclaimed the youth, tightening his girdle of sealskin eagerly.

"Well then--_away_!" shouted Rooney.

Off went Ippegoo at a pace which was obviously the best that he was capable of putting forth. Rooney counted as he ran, and in a much shorter time than had been specified he reached the point, for the level track, or what we may style sea-sh.o.r.e, of the berg was not a bad race-course. Suddenly, however, he came to an abrupt halt, and threw up his arms as if in amazement. Then he turned round and ran back at a pace that was even greater than he had achieved on the outward run.

Rooney was himself greatly surprised at this, for, as the youth drew nearer, the expression of his face showed that he had indeed seen "something" which had not been in the seaman's calculations. He spluttered and gasped as he came near, in his effort to speak.

"What is it?--take time, lad," said Rooney quietly.

"A b-bear! a bear!" cried Ippegoo.

"What! did it run at you?" asked Rooney, becoming slightly excited in his turn, and keeping his eye on the ice-point.

"N-no; no. It was sitting on--on its tail--l-looking at the--the s-sea."

"And we've no weapon bigger than an Eskimo knife," exclaimed the sailor, with a frown of discontent--"not even a bit of stick to tie the knife to. What a chance lost! He would have kept us in food for some weeks.

Well, well, this _is_ bad luck. Come, Ippe, we'll go back to the cave, and consult about this."

On returning to the cheerless retreat, they found the rest of the party just awakening. The men were yawning and rubbing their eyes, while the women, with characteristic activity and self-denial, were gathering together the few sc.r.a.ps of food that remained from the previous night's supper.

"There is a bear just round the point--so Ippe says--what's to be done?"

asked Rooney on entering.

Up jumped the four men and two boys as if they had been made of indiarubber.

"Attack it," cried Arbalik.

"Kill it," exclaimed Norrak.

"And eat it," said Ermigit.

"What will you attack it with?" asked Simek in a slightly contemptuous tone--"with your fingernails? If so, you had better send Sigokow to do battle, for she could beat the three of you."

The youths stood abashed.

"We have no spears," said Simek, "and knives are useless. Bad luck follows us."

"It is my opinion," said Okiok, "that whatever we do, or try to do, we had better eat something before doing it. Bring the victuals, Nuna."

"Okiok is right," said Angut; "and Arbalik had better go out and watch while we consult, so as to give us timely warning if the bear comes this way."

Without a word, Arbalik caught up a piece of blubber, and went out of the cave to enjoy his frugal breakfast while acting sentinel. The others, sitting down on their respective bearskins, ate and consulted hastily. The consultation was of little use, for they were utterly helpless, and the breakfast was not much more profitable, for there was far too little of it. Still, as Rooney truly remarked when the last morsel was consumed, it was better than nothing.

"Well now, my friends," said Angut at last, "since our food is done, and all our talk has come to nothing, I propose that we go out in a body to see this bear. As we cannot kill him, we must get rid of him by driving him away, for if we let him remain on the berg, he will come upon us when we are asleep, perhaps, and kill us."

"Yes, that is best," said Okiok. "If we separate, so as to distract him, and then make a united rush from all points, shrieking, that will drive him into the sea."

"Let us put Ippe in front," suggested Simek, with a twinkling eye; "he yells better than any of us."

"'Specially when he's got the toothache," added Rooney.

The object of this touch of pleasantry smiled in a good-humouredly imbecile manner. It was clear that his malady had been cured, at least for the time.

"But we must be very cautious," remarked Rooney, becoming serious, as they rose to proceed on their adventure. "It would not do to let any of our party get hurt. To my thinking, the women should take to the ice-cliffs before we begin, and get upon pinnacles, up which the bear could not climb."

While he was speaking, Arbalik came running in with the information that the bear was approaching.

"Has it seen you?" asked Angut, as they all ran out.

"I think not. From the way it walks, I think it has no suspicion of any one being on the berg."

In a few seconds they reached the point of the promontory or cliff in which their cave lay, and each member of the party peeped round with excessive caution, and there, sure enough, they beheld a white Polar bear of truly formidable size. But it had changed its course after Arbalik saw it, for by that time it had turned up one of the ice-valleys before-mentioned and begun to ascend into the interior of the berg. The slow, heavy gait of the unwieldy animal suggested to Rooney the idea that an active man could easily get out of its way, but the cat-like activity with which it bounded over one or two rivulets that came in its way quickly dissipated that idea.