So, uncertain, expectant, and trembling with excitement, he remained concealed behind an ice hummock until the seal hunters in advance had nearly reached him, and further concealment was impossible. Then he stepped boldly out.
The effect of Bobby's appearance was instantaneous and wonderful. A man in the advance, looking up, saw the strangely clad figure apparently rise out of the ice itself. The man turned about and wildly broke for the boats. Then another and another took one terrified glance at the supposed apparition, and tarrying not, turned about to compete with the first in a mad race for the boats. Shouts of "Ghost! Ghost!" filled the air, and then the stampede and panic became general, though after the manner of panic-stricken crowds, perhaps none but the first two or three had the slightest idea why or from what they were running.
The two men with guns were still some little distance from Bobby when the stampede began. One of these men was perhaps twenty-three or twenty-four years of age, the other many years his senior. They were dressed after the manner of sportsmen, and were evidently not members of the sealing crew. They did not join in the stampede as the men rushed past them in wild flight and confusion, but in utter astonishment looked for its cause in the direction from which the men had come, and discovered nothing more terrifying than Bobby, standing alone and no less astonished at what had occurred than themselves, and more than half inclined to run as fast in the opposite direction as the sealers had run toward their boats.
"Uncle, there's an Eskimo!" exclaimed the younger of the two, observing Bobby's seal-skin garments, but at that distance unable to note that his features were wholly unlike those of an Eskimo.
"Sure enough!" said the older man. "That explains it! The men weren't expecting to see any one, and they've taken him for a ghost! Come on, Edward. Let us interview him."
"How could an Eskimo get out here on the floe?" asked Edward, as they set out toward Bobby. "We're a long way from land."
"I don't know," said his companion. "We'll soon learn. But Eskimo hunters go a long way after seals, and he's probably on a hunting expedition."
"Why, he hasn't the features of an Eskimo, though he's dressed like one; and he's a handsome looking chap!" said Edward, in an undertone, as they drew near Bobby, who had overcome his inclination to run and had not moved.
"Good-morning!" greeted the older man a moment later, when they were within speaking distance.
"Good-morning, sir," said Bobby, timidly.