Steve Young Part 49

This time the boat pa.s.sed several of the heavy animals, which stared at them stupidly, but did not attempt to stir, so that there would have been no difficulty twice over in striking and making fast; but the huge fellow with the grand tusks was the one they aimed for, the walrus they pa.s.sed having shorter or broken teeth.

"How is it so many have their teeth damaged?" whispered Steve.

"No dentists up here to attend to them," said the doctor, who had heard the query.

"Some break them fighting," said Johannes seriously, for he did not comprehend Mr Hands...o...b..'s allusion; "but very often they snap off the points through digging, them into the ice."

"What for?"

"To drag themselves up out of the water," replied Johannes with a look of surprise. "Now, hist!"

Steve was silent, and sat with his rifle across his lap watching the animals, several of those swimming about being young of various sizes, great, fat, shapeless creatures, more like inflated india-rubber sacks cut short than anything else.

And all this time the boat and men kept well behind a large piece of the ice-floe, which screened them effectually from the great bull. But now the time had come when they would have to row round into sight, and the captain sat ready with his piece c.o.c.ked, the doctor also being prepared to follow if necessary; and, seeing this, Steve softly raised the hammers of his own rifle, and sat prepared.

Johannes noted his action, and gave an approving nod.

The boat glided round the end of the floe, and there, some sixty yards away, lay the ma.s.sive bull.

The huge animal had no idea of their approach till now, when they learned the fact that it was evidently the sentinel of the herd, for it drew itself right up with a look of surprise, and the captain raised his piece.

"Not yet, sir!" cried Johannes. "Closer, closer!"

The men pulled, and they saw the bull go through some singular evolutions, as if it were kicking at something beyond and out of sight.

It was so, for instantly three more walrus started into sight and plunged into the water, and, the alarm being spread, the occupants of other ma.s.ses of ice and the edge of the princ.i.p.al floe slid and splashed heavily in, their leader having evidently cried, "Danger! Every one for himself!"

As soon as the grand old sentinel had done his duty, he prepared, with an activity not to have been expected, to take care of himself, all of this having been the work of half a minute; but the boat was now within thirty yards, and gliding nearer, when the captain fired two shots rapidly one after the other.

"Pull!" roared Johannes, and the men dragged at their stout ashen blades; and as the bull, which did not seem even staggered by the heavy bullets, plunged down from the side of the floe, the Norseman reached it and drove the harpoon right into its back, giving a twist with his wrist, and drawing back with the thin pine shaft, as the line ran rapidly out over the bows, following the walrus which had disappeared.

"No, missed!" cried one of the Nors.e.m.e.n from the second boat; and as Steve glanced in that direction he saw that they were pulling hard, apparently after nothing, for not a walrus could be seen.

Then, with Johannes erect in the bows, armed with his great lance, the boat was pulled in the direction in which the line was running out, and for a moment Steve was startled, for all at once a hundred heads almost together appeared above the surface some distance before them, there was a burst of sniffs and snorts as the animals took breath and instantly dived down again, their flippers appearing above the surface, and then they were gone.

The great bull appeared, too, and dived once more before the line was run out; and when the herd, after which the other boat was in full chase, had appeared in the same way two or three times, breathed, and dived again, Jakobsen began to manipulate the line so as to get a pull on the frightened beast, in whose tough hide the harpoon held fast. The consequence was that, while the mate was urging on the men in the other boat, the captain's was being towed and the men lying on their oars.

Just then there was a shout from the other boat, for the last of the flying herd had been overtaken by hard pulling; and, watching his opportunity so as to pick out a finely tusked head, the Norse harpooner there had made a successful thrust, and they, too, were fast in a great bull.

The end for the poor beast first struck was now near; it was growing tired of trying to overtake the flying herd, which appeared and disappeared with wonderful regularity and exactness. It had the boat to drag as well as to force its mighty carca.s.s through the water, and Jakobsen drew upon the line again and again, so as to get within striking distance when the animal ceased to make efforts to dive down.

"Let me come forward and send a bullet through it," said the doctor.

"Better not, sir. It may charge us, and we can stop it better with our lances. If it got its tusks over the side, we should either have a plank ripped out or be overturned."

"Do it your own way," said the captain; and the words had hardly left his lips when Jakobsen stooped and rapidly picked up his lance, for the head of the walrus appeared above the water with its great six-inch bristles standing out above the gleaming tusks. And now it seemed as if it were determined to fly no more, but to wreak its vengeance upon its pursuers. With a loud, snorting noise it made a rush for the boat, its eyes looking wild and red, and the whole aspect of the great visage threatening to a degree.

Steve's heart seemed to give a bound, for he was close to the bows, and only a few feet from the terrible-looking monster. Involuntarily he raised and presented his piece; but Johannes uttered a warning growl that sounded exactly like that emitted by Skene, who backed away amongst the men, snarling and showing his teeth, as if saying, "I've got plenty of fight in me, but it isn't fair to expect me to tackle an arctic sea-elephant like that."

Then the huge beast was close up, with head raised, and the gleaming tusks about to strike the boat's bows, when, _whish_! _crish_! two great lances were driven into its breast. The recoil thrust the boat away from where the water was tossed wildly about, the animal struggling frantically, and recovering itself sufficiently from the two terrible thrusts, which dyed the clear water with crimson, to make another charge at the boat, but only to be met in the same way.

There was another desperate struggle, the poor creature scattering the water with its great flippers, and the next minute, to Steve's great relief, it was dead and beginning to sink; but Johannes seized the line, and deftly threw a ring round the walrus's neck, gave it a few twists, and made the monster fast, in case the harpoon should after all give way, as it had with the other boat, which was now returning disconsolate, it being impossible to overtake the swimming and diving herd. Then all at once the animals turned, for something happened which brought them tearing back through the water as rapidly as they had tried to escape; and now, as they came swimming back, it was without any diving, but with serried front, eyes flashing, and tusks gleaming, in a grand charge upon the boats, and with a force sufficient to tear them into matchwood and drown their occupants in the first rush.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

STEVE'S NEW PET.

The reason for the change of front from flight to a brave attack was this. As the second boat was returning with her disappointed crew, they drove back a member of the herd that had been left behind in the shape of a calf, which, to escape this second boat, swam and dived with such bad choice of direction that, unseen before, it all at once popped its droll-looking head out of the water close to where Steve was sitting looking at their huge prize. Possibly it was the dead walrus which had attracted the young one and brought it so close.

Skene was the first to see the absurd-looking little creature, and, planting his feet upon the gunwale, he barked himself into a state of terrible excitement, driving the young walrus into hiding beneath the water, but only to come up again from time to time to breathe.

The young walrus could not understand the remarks made about its personal appearance, or else in all probability it would have swum away; for the shapeless creature was dubbed "bladder of lard," "skin of oil,"

"prize pig," and the like, though Steve stuck to the notion of its being like a short india-rubber sack, blown full of wind, so little did head or flippers project from the blubber-distended body.

"Oh, I say, Johannes, couldn't you catch it?" cried Steve. "The poor thing believes that is its mother."

"Yes, sir, and will not go away till we begin to row."

"Couldn't you catch it?"

"Oh yes, sir, I could catch it, I daresay," replied the Norseman, "if the captain wishes."

"But I do not wish," said Captain Marsham. "What do you want with a young walrus?"

"To bring up and tame," replied Steve, with the impression the while that he was saying something rather absurd.

"Have a big one," cried the doctor, "and let's form a zoological garden!"

"I don't see anything to laugh at," said Steve. "It would be very interesting to watch the habits of the curious animal, and we've driven its mother away. What would become of it, Johannes, if it is left?"

"Bear," said the Norseman laconically.

"There!" cried Steve, looking at the captain.

"Try and catch it," said the latter quietly; and, giving Steve a smile and a nod, the Norseman took hold of the end of a coil of line, made a noose, and, watching his opportunity, threw it cleverly over the head end of the calf.

"Hurrah! got him first throw!" cried Steve. "No: gone!"

For the rope on being tightened glided over the slippery hide and came away, while the calf dived, turning over like a round cork float, showing its hind flippers, and then it was out of sight.

"There's nothing to catch hold of, sir," said Johannes good-humouredly, as he stood there with the noose gathered up in one hand, the coils of line in the other; "but he'll be up again directly."

Johannes stood so quick and watchful that, as the calf's head popped out of the water again, a ring of rope fell round it and was tightened at once, but with no better fortune. Again and again the Norseman tried; but the little creature was too slippery, and gave way, so that it was like trying to la.s.so a huge egg bobbing about on the surface.

"Give it up," said the captain at last; but it was just as the ring of line fell once more round the plump, swimming and diving object, and Steve's feeling of disappointment gave way to delight, for fortune smiled upon the Norseman's efforts at last, or else the little walrus threw one flipper over the rope and hugged it to its fat side, with the result that the line was tightened with a s.n.a.t.c.h, and its egg-like body was suddenly compressed into a dumb-bell shape.

"Got him!" cried Steve joyfully, and Skene nearly jumped overboard in his excitement, barking the next minute furiously, while his master stopped his ears; for the calf, as it was dragged toward the boat, first set up a whimper, and then broke out into a series of snorts, barks, and squeals, which gave it a strong resemblance to a pig being coerced into quiescence while undergoing the ornamentation to its nose known as ringing.