"Oh, we will prepare for that," said Fritz; "it shall be soaked and cleaned, and dried until it is as hard as a wooden model; it shall not offend your delicate nose in the least, Ernest!"
"I supposed the walrus to be an animal peculiar to the Arctic regions," remarked Ernest.
"And so it is," I replied; "though they may occasionally be seen elsewhere; these may have wandered from the Antarctic seas. I know that on the eastern coast of Africa is found a smaller species of walrus called the dugong; it has long incisor teeth, but not tusks; and certainly resembles a seal rather than a walrus."
While thus speaking, we were actively engaged in the decapitation of the walrus, and in cutting off long strips of its skin. This took some time, as we had not the proper implements, and Fritz remarked that in future the cajack must be provided with a hunting-knife and a hatchet; adding that he should like to have a small compass in a box, with a glass top, fixed in front of the hole where the steersman sits. I saw the necessity of this, and I promised it should be done.
Our work being accomplished, we were ready to go, and I proposed to take Fritz and the canoe on board our boat, so that we might all arrive together; but I yielded to his earnest wish to return alone as he came; he longed to act as our avant-courier, and announce our approach to his mother; so he was soon skimming away over the surface of the water, while we followed at a slower rate.
Black clouds meanwhile gathered thick and fast around us, and a tremendous storm came on. Fritz was out of sight, and beyond our reach.
We buckled on the swimming belts and firmly lashed ourselves to the boat, so that we might not be washed overboard by the towering seas which broke over it.
The horizon was shrouded in darkness, fearful gusts of wind lashed the ocean into foam, rain descended in torrents, while livid lightning glared athwart the gloom. Both my boys faced the danger nobly; and my feelings of alarm were mingled with hope on finding how well the boat behaved.
The tempest swept on its way, and the sky began to clear as suddenly as it had been overcast; yet the stormy waves continued for a long time to threaten our frail bark with destruction, in spite of its buoyancy and steadiness.
Yet I never lost hope for ourselves—all my fears were for Fritz; in fact I gave him up for lost, and my whole agonized heart arose in prayer for strength to say, "Thy will be done!"