Beadle's Boy's Library of Sport, Story, and Adventure, No. 37 — page 9: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

oo — Old Tar Knuckle and His Boy Chums. as the head of a huge walrus was thrust above the water. With its round eyes, its long tusks, and its visage having something human in its ex- pression, the appearance of this creature was weird and peculiar. It uttered a singular noise, between a bark and a roar, as it stared at the boats. ~ The next moment the heads of many other walruses popped up above the surface of the water. Spear in hand, an Esquimaux rose in the bow of his boat. He took good aim at one of the monsters, and whiz went the weapon, lodging in the creature’s body, just back of the head. At the same time Knuckle also hurled his spear into one of the animals, while simultaneously, the Esquimaux in the remaining boat sent his barbed weapon into the body of a third, so that the three boats were all fast nearly at one and the same time. In an instant down went the walruses, plung- ing into the depths, dragging the boats along into a water-cavern that yawned in one of the rocks. Away they went for some minutes with great speed, while a hoarse bellowing rolled through the cavern astern of the crews, “* What is that?” said Nye. ‘Tt is the walruses, lad; the other critters following us astarn,” said Knuckle. By this time Charley’s eyes had become suffi- ciently accustomed to the dim light in the cave to enable him to see the dusky, tusked heads and round eyes of about twenty morses, dash- ing the water to foam as they came on after the fast boats. Suddenly the speed of the latter stopped. The water parted ahead, and up rose the three monsters, with the harpoons in them, plunging madly about, staining the water with their blood. ** Haul line!” roared Knuckle. The crew obeyed. The natives also hauled in line, and now lance after lance went whistling | on its way, to be buried in the huge bodies o the animals. make a plunge for the boats, but their assail- ants, working skillfully, avoided them. Meanwhile the morses astarn were fast com- ingup. Already they were within a few fath- oms of the boats, ‘* Look out for the critters astern, lads, while I see to the one weare fast to. afoul of the boat and capsize it,” said the fourth mate. Spear in hand, Yonkitt and each of the two lads stood ready. Half a dozen huge bulls, leaping nearly their length from the water, dashed toward the boat. Yonkitt drove his spear into one, but Nye and Hasler were not so fortunate. The weapons of both were caught on the enormous tusks of the sea-morses, which now hurled themselves on both sides of the light craft, so near that there was great danger of their upsetting it. Occasionally, when wounded by harpoon or | . lance, the walrus will turn upon its assailant | and show fight, but this is not often the case, It is usually the rushing, the leaping and bound- ing of the animal to and fro, in its efforts to es- cape, that endangers the fast boat. Asa gen- eral rule, when human beings are very near it, the creature will plunge out of sight or swim away from them; but when one of their com- rades is fastened to, or has been slain, the dar- ing pertinacity with which these animals will hover about the dead body, in spite of the vicinity of any number of their foes, is truly remarkable. At this instant the walrus which was fast- ened to, starting ahead, dragged Knuckle’s boat away from the others, which then, with a roar as of baffled rage, disappeared under the water. ‘* Gone!” said Nye. ‘¢ We see again,” remarked Yonkitt, shaking the spray from his coal-black hair, On went the boat with great swiftness. It was soon near the further extremity of the rocky arch, where the walls on each side were not more than ten feet apart, and where the water was shallow. The walrus fastened to came bellowing to the surface again, and again Knuckle’s spear whistled through the air. With one farewell moan, the huge bull rolled over on its side—dead. At the same moment a roar like thunder was heard. : ‘“Where did that come from?’ said Nye, glancing round him in surprise, for he could see nothing. ** Look!” cried Yonkitt, pointing upward, on both sides of the cavern. _ The roar was repeated. Charley looked up, to behold a singular spectacle. , They might run | Now and then the latter would | | ——— It seemed to him that more than fifty of the demon-like sea-morses, were collected on each side of the cavern. There they were, on the rocky, projecting shelves above the ver forms as large as those of bulls, with their strange-looking eyes and their long tusks re vealed in the dim light. *Starn! starn! lively lads, lively!” yelled Knuckle: The crew obeyed, slowly towing the dead walrus along. The bellowing of the morses was now become terrific They peered from the rocky ledges with fierce, flaming eyes, at the boat, thrashing the wall with their flippers, as if in a rage. It was a perilous gantlet for that boat’s crew to run, for they expected every moment that the monsters would drop down upon them in the narrow passage they were threading! “Steady—lads—steady but swift is the word!” hissed Knuckle through his clinched teeth. The sight of their dead friend seemed to work the morses up to a pitch of fury. All at once one of the monsters, dropped from the ledge, but as the passage was here a little wider than further beyond,the anima! missed the boat, and struck the water. This was a signal for the others, and, for several minutes, the crushing of the falling bodies was heard. Astern —ahead—on all sides of the boat they dropped, the whole living mass bounding and rushing about the light craft! Only for an instant could Knuckle and his companions use their spears, then boat and crew disappeared in this vortex of white tusks, glar- rh eyes and plunging bodies. he enormous tusks of some of the animals _catching on the inside of the light boat occu- pied by the sailors, had capsized it, and the four now found themselves, the moment they rose from under the surface, up to their waist in the shallow water of the rocky passage, stending in the very midst of the bellowing berd of morses, Hemmed in as they were by the walruses, their situation was one of great peril. There was danger every moment that they would receive a blow from the flippers, the heads or the tusks of these monsters in such violent commotion around them. ** Now, lads!” cried Knuckle, at length notic- ing a cleared space between the animals and the rocks at the base of one of the cavern walls. ‘* Now, lads, follow me!” ““What has become of our boat?” Hasler. “The Lord only knows; it is probably torn to pieces by the tusks of them critters by this time,” answered Knuckle. A minute later the four, their teeth chatter- ing with the cold, were climbing out of the water upon the rocks. All were soon out except Nye, whose foot had slipped, causing him to fall back into the water. He went over sideways, and, unfortunately, at the same moment, a huge walrus plunged past the spot where he fell. Hasler bad stretched out his hand to help the boy up when, to his horror, he beheld one of the tusks of the walrus catch in the lad’s open jacket, the cloth of which it pierced! As the monster went careering on, Charley was jerked from the grasp of his friend and borne along by the uncouth creature, which, however, seemed to make wild efforts to disen- gage its tusk from its unwelcome burden, There was acry of dismay from the three seamen, as they endeavored to heep up along the rocks with the animal which was thus drag- ging off their young shipmate. Meanwhile Charley, in his attempts to free himself from the buge sea-morse, had twisted his body half round, so that he now lay on his side partly over the back of the monster. His pursuing friends were within seven fathoms of him when they saw the walrus about to descend with him through a large water- hole in the rocks at the side of the cavern. * Avast, there, avast!” yelled Knuckle. ‘*God help the lad! that infarnal morse is going to drag him down through that hole, under water!’ Hasler raised the spear he still held, but Kouckle caught his arm. ‘‘No living man could strike the morse at this distance without hitting the boy! Your spear would only pio the poor lad to the critter |” ‘Then he is lost! he is lost!” groaned Hasler. There was a keen flash in Yonkitt’s eyes, With one hand he dashed the wet black hair from his eyes. Then his long spear was raised on high. ** Avast! You’ll kill the boy!” cried Knuckle. cried heads of the crew—their, 9 But even as he spoke, a half smile curled the lip of the youn squimaux, and his barbed weapon flew whistling from his hand. With unerring precision, it sped, passed within an inch of Charley’s neck, struck the life-spot it had been aimed at, and sinking deep into the morse’s body at the very moment when the animal was about to plunge downward into tho water-hole, the creature rolled over on its side, stone dead, as if smitten by a thunderbolt! Charley’s life was saved! He disengaged himself from the tusk of the walrus, and joined his friends on the rocks, CHAPTER IX, A TERRIBLE SLEIGH-RIDE, By this time the herd of living sea-morses had collected in the further part of the passage about the body of the animal which had pre- viously been fastened to and killed. The two sealskin boats of the other Esqui- maux hunters arrived soon after, to pick up the three sailors. Drenched and cold as they were, they were glad to help tow the dead walruses to land. There the animals were skinned and cut up by the Esquimaux, the seamen moving on to the settlement. Soon after the arrival of these men with the skins, many of the tribe were seen running hitber and thither, the tears coursing down the fat cheeks of some of the women and childrep. ‘““Dem cry for loss of sealskin boat,” ex- plained Yonkitt. ‘ Dat der way; sometimes cry, have weeping meeting, if only sealskin line break!” A few days later, the skins having been dried, a large and commodious tent was erected on one side of the village for the whalemen. Most of the people were very kind to them, and furnished them with furs, cooking utensils, and other useful things. In return for their hospi- talitv, Knuckle and his companions continued to assist them in their hunts for seals, walruses, etc. The whale-boat had been brought up to that part of the coast nearest the settlement, and the sailors always used this craft, when they hunted with the Esquimaux. Bear’s flesh and salmon with provisions brought from their cave, were now their principal food, of which they - had thus far obtained a sufficient supply. Meanwhile Okotook, whose jealousy of Knuckle had not abated, still endeavored by every means in his power, to persuade his ple to send the whites away. He was often ob- served to harangue many of the Esquimaux, who were gathered around him, His speech, which had much influence with these superstitious people was, as translated by Yonkitt, to the effect that he bad a dream in which it was revealed to bim that misfortune would be certain to follow their taking the whites to live among them. The loss of their seal-skin boat was the beginning of these misfor- tunes, At length the time drew near when the sail- ors might expect the return of the Beacon, and an occasional watch was kept by the old tar from ** Lookout Rock”—the cliff which has been alluded to—the one near which their house had formerly stood. Winter was settled, game had become more scarce than formerly, and as the sailors could not yet bring themselves to partake of the eeal’s flesh and blubber which was enjoyed by the Esquimaux there were times when they had nothing to eat. “ By the etarnal blackfish!” cried Knuckle, one cold morning, as he stood with his friends on the Lookout cliff which was now white with frozen snow—‘‘ we ought to see something of our craft by this time, but there’s no sign of her vet 1” ~ Suddenly Yonkitt laid a hand on the old sailor’s arm. ** Look!” he cried, ‘‘ Injun come!” As he spoke he pointed toward a small party of savages, who were visible in the distance, moving toward the settlement. The sailors crouched among the rocks, and watched the Indians. Halting when within a hundred yards of the huts, one of the savages raised a ar with a piece of a blanket fluttering from the end, and waved it to and fro. f “What does that mean?” inquired Nye. ‘Tt means,” said Yonkitt, “that they want to speak to Esquimaux.” “So they are not going to attack them?” said Nye. ‘*No, but me no like they speak to Esqui- maux. Dem people come for no good!” It was some time before any of the Esquimaux Eomicboo (E S (E(0)