Suddenly a guttural cry from the Eskimo warned them of danger. At the same time the guide gave a sharp stroke of his paddle which turned the boat quickly—but not an instant too quickly—to avoid the huge ice floe that was bearing down upon them.
As it was, they scraped the side of it with a sharp, rending noise, and then they saw, with a quickening of heartbeats, the animal on the floe.
A walrus! The boys recognized it at once, though this was not like any walrus they had ever seen before. He was full thirteen feet long, huge of tusk and fierce-eyed. He must have been very old, for his great body was almost naked and marked all over with jagged scars of battle.
A walrus is, as a rule, a peaceful animal and is content to leave alone the strange man creature as long as the man creature is content to leave him alone. But when the walrus is startled or attacked suddenly, he is remarkably ferocious and his great ivory tusks make him a formidable enemy.
Now, this walrus had been surprised, and at sight of the spears which the boys still held in their hands, his whole enormous bulk became suddenly a wicked, charging fury.
Beside them and a little above their frail boat drifted the ice floe, and upon it was that infuriated beast, roaring out its frightful challenge.
No time to get away, no time even to think. Time only to act.
As the beast lumbered heavily toward them, the boys raised the spears, which they still held, and lunged with all their might. At the same time Mooloo, with a yell of rage, hurled his spear with all the force of his body behind it.
The walrus stopped in its advance, gave one terrific bellow, and wavered for an instant, its flappers turned in. Then slowly it fell to its side and slid into the water with a terrific splash that nearly drowned them in icy spray.
A moment more, and they had drifted past the ice floe, which was almost immediately lost to sight in the whirling snowflakes.