Johannes laughed.
“Hardly,” he said; “don’t you see that it is the bear’s mate.”
So it proved; and upon the party approaching the dead animal, their coming was savagely resented, and the second bear came on at once to the attack so fiercely that the battle began at once, with the result that the Norsemen, who had all accompanied this expedition, had two bears to skin, and the sledge was heavily laden with the valuable portion of their game.
Certain threatening signs were pointed out by Johannes soon after, and they started back, but did not reach the boat till the ground was covered with snow and a peculiar chill was in the air. This snow in summer was unseasonable, but it made the sleigh run easily, and the boat was reached in less time than had been anticipated; but the mountain slopes on either side of the fiord were completely transformed by the snow, an early taste of the winter they might expect to set in before long if they stayed.
As the summer glided on the great rampart of ice was patiently watched for tokens of melting, but these signs were few; and as the sun rose less high day by day, and there were once more hours of darkness, the prospect of their having to bear the winter where they were began to be discussed.
But meanwhile there was a long expedition as often as the men had cleared away the quantities of seal and walrus blubber that were brought in and rendered down. These expeditions were made to embrace business and investigation; and their knowledge of the lay of the land increasing, they persevered in their search wherever it was possible to penetrate the valleys, while the coast to north and south was explored as far as the boats could go.
But there was no sign of the lost crew, and as the time wore on it became evident that they were not in the region occupied by their friends.
“Let us hope that they may have reached home by now,” said the doctor one evening. “I think we have done everything we can to find them.”
“Everything,” said the captain gravely; “but we cannot fight against fate.”
There began to be certain signs now of the short summer nearing its termination, beside the setting of the sun in the far north-west. The birds were not so plentiful, and whenever a flock approached as many ducks and geese as possible were shot, and placed in ice for use in the winter, when no doubt they would all have gone south.