“But we must be very cautious,” remarked Rooney, becoming serious, as they rose to proceed on their adventure. “It would not do to let any of our party get hurt. To my thinking, the women should take to the ice-cliffs before we begin, and get upon pinnacles, up which the bear could not climb.”
While he was speaking, Arbalik came running in with the information that the bear was approaching.
“Has it seen you?” asked Angut, as they all ran out.
“I think not. From the way it walks, I think it has no suspicion of any one being on the berg.”
In a few seconds they reached the point of the promontory or cliff in which their cave lay, and each member of the party peeped round with excessive caution, and there, sure enough, they beheld a white Polar bear of truly formidable size. But it had changed its course after Arbalik saw it, for by that time it had turned up one of the ice-valleys before-mentioned and begun to ascend into the interior of the berg. The slow, heavy gait of the unwieldy animal suggested to Rooney the idea that an active man could easily get out of its way, but the cat-like activity with which it bounded over one or two rivulets that came in its way quickly dissipated that idea.
“The farther he goes up that valley,” whispered Simek, “the more trouble we shall have in driving him into the sea.”
“He does not seem to know his own mind,” remarked Okiok, as the bear again changed his course, and entered one of the small gorges that opened into the larger valley.
“He knows it well enough,” said Ermigit. “Don’t you see he is making for the ice-top, where these gulls are sitting? The fool expects to catch them asleep.”
Ermigit seemed to have guessed rightly, for after clambering up the ice-gorge referred to until he gained a high ledge or plateau, he began regularly to stalk the birds with the sly patience of a cat.
There was much in the bear’s favour, for the recent fall of a pinnacle had covered the ledge with shattered blocks of all shapes and sizes, in the shelter of which it could creep towards its prey. Our Eskimos watched the proceeding open-mouthed, with profound interest. To within twenty yards or so of its game did that white-robed Arctic hunter approach. Then it crouched for a rush at the unconscious birds, for no other lump of ice lay between them and their foe.