CHAPTER XX.
A MYSTERIOUS LIGHT.
"Take him off,—take him off. If I were not running he'll bite me," shrieked the scientist as he sped along.
"Whatever is it?" shouted Frank, regarding the strange sight with amazement.
"It's a sea-leopard. Ouch!—he bit me then. Shoot him or something," screamed the professor, scooting round in circles like a professional runner; for he knew that if he stopped the creature would surely nip him hard.
Frank hastily ran into the hut for his rifle and returned in a moment followed by the others. Half the occupants of the camp were out by this time to watch the outcome of the professor's quandary.
Frank raised his rifle and took careful aim—or as careful aim as he could with the professor rushing along at such a pace, but even as the rifle cracked the professor tripped on a snow hummock and down he came. The yell he set up echoed back from the naked, rocky crags that towered at the back of the camp.
"Don't holler so, the creature's dead," cried Frank, as he and the boys came running up to where the recumbent professor lay howling in the snow.
"Oh, dear, I do seem to have the worst luck," moaned the scientist. "First, I'm nearly drowned by a killer whale, then I'm almost pollowed by a swenguin—no, I mean swallowed by a penguin, and now a sea leopard attacks me."
As he spoke the professor got to his feet and the dead sea-leopard, as he called it, fell over on the snow. It was a ponderous creature, much like a seal, but with huge tusks and a savage expression, even in death. It was about five feet in length.
"What made it tackle you?" asked Harry.
"I was down by the beach collecting some curious specimens of polar sea-slugs, when I felt a tug at my coat-tails," said the scientist. "I looked round and saw this creature glaring at me."
"Why didn't you shoot at it?" asked Billy, noting the outline of the professor's revolver under his coattail.
"I had placed a specimen of antarctic star-moss in the barrel of my revolver for safe-keeping, and didn't wish to disturb it," explained the professor; "so I thought the best thing to do under the circumstances was to run. I never dreamed the creature would cling on."
"Well it did, and like a bull-dog, too," said Billy.
"We'll have to be careful and not get snarled up with any sea-leopards," said Harry, who had been examining the dead animal. "Look at the monster's tusks."
"Yes, he could make a fine meal off any of you boys," remarked the professor.
Suddenly he fell on his knees beside the sea-leopard and began examining it carefully.
"What in the world are you doing, now?" asked Frank.
"I thought I might find a sea-leopard flea," was the response of the engrossed scientist.
"Ah," he exclaimed, making a sudden dart; "here is one, a beauty, too.
Ah, ha, my fine fellow, no use your wriggling, I have you fast."
As he spoke he drew out one of the bottles of which receptacles his pockets seemed to be always full, and popped the sea-leopard flea into it.
"That will be a very valuable addition to science," he said, looking round triumphantly.
A few days after this incident the polar night began to shut down in grim earnest. Sometimes for days the boys and the other adventurers would be confined to the huts. Entertainments were organized and phonograph concerts given, and, when it was possible to venture out, hunting trips in a neighboring seal-ground were attempted. All these things helped to while away the monotony of the long darkness. In the meantime the commanders of the expedition laid their plans for the spring campaign, when the boys' aerial dash was to be made.
On one of the milder nights, when Frank and Rastus were on watch, their first intimation that a strange and mysterious presence shared their lonely vigil was made manifest. It was Rastus who called Frank's attention to what was eventually to prove a perplexing puzzle to the pole hunters.
As the colored man and Frank were pacing outside the huts, keeping their watch, the negro suddenly gripped the boy's arm.
"Fo' de lub ob goodness, man, wha's dat?" he exclaimed, getting as pale as it is possible for a negro to become.
"What?" demanded the boy. "I can't see anything."
He stared about him in the gloom.
"Ain't nuffin ter SEE," rejoined Rastus, in a low, awed tone. "But, hark!"
The negro's ears, sharper than those of the white boy, had caught a sound that later became audible to Frank.
It was a most peculiar sound.
Coming from no one direction that one could indicate with certainty, it seemed to fill the whole air with a buzzing noise that beat almost painfully on the eardrums.
While he gazed about, in perplexity at the phenomenon, Frank suddenly descried something that almost startled him into an outcry.
In the sky far to the westward and, seemingly, high in the air, there hovered a bright light!
The next instant it vanished so suddenly as to leave some doubt in the boy's mind as to whether he had really seen it,—and, if he had, if it might not have been a star or some other heavenly body.
He turned to his companion.
"Rastus, did you see a light in the sky there a second ago?"
The boy pointed in the direction in which the mystery had appeared.
"A light—?" repeated the puzzled negro, still scared at the buzzing sound, which had now ceased. "You done say a light—a reg'lar LIGHT, light?"
"Yes, yes," impatiently; "did you see one?"
"No, sah, no, indeedy," was the indignant response; "ah don' see no lights."
"That's strange," said Frank, half to himself. "You are quite sure?"
Again the negro denied all knowledge of having beheld such a thing.
"Ef ah'd done seed anyfing lak dat," he declared; "ah'd hev bin skedaddlin' fer ther hut lak er chicken wif a hungry coon afta' it,—yas, sah."
Thoroughly convinced that his imagination had played him a trick, Frank did not mention the incident, to his fellow adventurers and soon almost forgot it. It was recalled to his mind in a startling manner a few nights later.
This time it was Rastus that saw the strange light, and the yell that he set up alarmed the entire camp.
"Oh, Lordy—oo-o-o-o-ow, Lawdy!" he shrieked; "ah done see a ghosess way up in dar sky, Massa Frank!"
Frank seized the black by the arm, as he started to run.
"What do you mean, you big black coward," he exclaimed. "What's the matter with you?"
"Oh, dat dar light," wailed Rastus. "Dat ain't no human light dat ain't; dat light's a way up in dar sky. It's a polar ghosess, dat's wha' dat is—de ghos' ob some dead sailor."
"Don't talk nonsense," sharply ordered Frank, as the others, hastily bundled in their furs, came rushing out.
"Whatever is the matter?" demanded Captain Hazzard, gazing sternly at the trembling negro.
"Oh, Massa Hazzard, ah done see a ghos' light in dar sky," he yelled.
"Silence, sir, and stop that abominable noise. Frank, what do you know about this?"
"Only that I really believe he saw such a thing, sir."
"What, a light in the sky!" echoed Captain Barrington. "Did you see it, too?"
"Not to-night, sir."
"Then it has appeared before?"
"Yes, it has," was the reply.
"But you said nothing of it," exclaimed Captain Hazzard.
"No; I thought it might be imagination. It appeared for such a short time that I could not be certain if it was not a trick of the imagination."
"Well, it begins to look as if Rastus is telling the truth," was the officer's comment.
"Yas, sah, yas sah, I'se tellin' de truf, de whole truf, and everything but de truf," eagerly stuttered the negro.
"Where did you first see the light?" demanded Captain Hazzard.
"Right ober de grable (gable) ob de ruuf ob de big hut," was the reply.
"That's about where I saw it," burst out Frank.
"Was it stationary?" asked Captain Hazzard.
"Yas, sah; it's station was airy, dat's a fac'," grinned Rastus. "It was high up in de air."
"That's not what I mean, at all," snapped Captain Hazzard. "Was it moving or standing still?"
"Oh, ah see what yo' mean, Captain Hazzard,—no, sir, der was no circumlocution ob de objec', in fac', sah, it was standin' still."
"For how long did you watch it?"
"Wall, sah, it jes flash lak de wink ob an eye and den it was gone."
"Possibly it was some sort of antarctic lightning-bug," ventured the professor, who had been intently listening to the account of the strange light.
"Hardly likely," smiled Captain Barrington. "Tell us, Rastus, what it looked most like to you—what did it resemble?"
"Wall, sah, it presembled mos'ly dat big laight what yo' see on a snortermobile befo' it runs ober you. Yas, sah, Cap't Barranton, dat's what it looked lak, fo' sho."
"Does that tally with your impression of it, Frank?" asked Captain
Hazzard.
"Yes, sir, Rastus has put it very well. It was more like an automobile headlight than anything else."
"Well, nobody could be driving an automobile in the sky," put in the professor, decisively, as if the matter were disposed of in this way without any more argument being wasted.
"No, but there are other vehicles that are capable of rising above the earth," spoke Captain Hazzard, thoughtfully.
"For instance—?" breathed Frank, with a half-formed idea of what he meant.
"For instance, airships," was the quiet reply.
"Airships," exclaimed Captain Barrington. "Then you think—-?"
"That we have some very undesirable neighbors at close quarters," rejoined Captain Hazzard.