For some time after reaching the hut they were busily engaged, cleaning the skins and salting them down for preservation. They had both been instructed how to do this on board the whaler; although Eric, having had previous practical experience with all the details of the operation, now acted as superintendent.
They had also to boil the blubber in the iron cauldron, which they had brought from the States for the purpose of “trying out the oil,” as whaling men technically term the procedure; and they found when they had finished that the result realised some ten barrels full.
This was a splendid start for them and it made them so contented that it was upwards of a fortnight before they undertook another expedition to the west beach.
But, apart, from the satisfactory results of their first venture, they thought it best to let the seals have a little interlude of calm before attacking them again. Besides this, Eric’s reports from his look-out station on the tableland were most unfavourable, as, for some days after their last foray, hardly a seal was to be seen in the neighbourhood of the scene of the fray.
However, one fine morning in December, Eric reported the arrival of a fresh batch of the fur-bearing animals on the west rocks; so, making their boat ready, the brothers soon sailed round thither once more.
They had turned the last projecting point of the headland, before opening the beach frequented by the seals, and Fritz had brought up the boat’s head to the wind, preparatory to their lowering the sail and taking to their oars to pull into shore, when Eric, who had been looking out over the bows, arrested his brother’s intention.
“Hullo, Fritz!” he exclaimed, “there’s some one there before us. I can see a boat, with a lot of men in it, close to the beach!”
“Indeed!” said Fritz, quite as much astonished. “I wonder who they are?”
He felt almost as indignant as a landlord on finding that a party of poachers had invaded his choicest preserves and were ruthlessly appropriating his pet pheasants!
“Himmel!” he repeated, “I wonder who the fellows can be?”