When an hour had passed away the poor boy became thoroughly alarmed.
“Can anything have happened to the boat?” he said to himself. “The india-rubber is easily cut. Perhaps they may have been blown out to sea!”
This latter thought caused an involuntary shudder. Looking round, he observed that the depression of the sun towards the horizon indicated that night had set in.
“This will never do,” he suddenly exclaimed aloud. “Leo will be lost. I must risk it!”
Turning as he spoke, he ran back to the spot where he had left the water-dress, which he immediately put on. Then, leaving gun and game on the beach, he boldly entered the sea, and struck out with feet and paddle for Poloeland.
Although sorely buffeted by the rising waves, and several times overwhelmed, his waterproof costume proved well able to bear him up, and with comparatively little fatigue he reached the land in less than two hours. Without waiting to take the dress off, he ran up to the Eskimo village and gave the alarm.
While these events were going on among the islets, Captain Vane and Alphonse Vandervell had been far otherwise engaged.
“Come, Alf,” said the Captain, that same morning, after Leo and his party had started on their expedition, “let you and me go off on a scientific excursion,—on what we may style a botanico-geologico-meteorological survey.”
“With all my heart, uncle, and let us take Butterface with us, and Oolichuk.”
“Ay, lad, and Ivitchuk and Akeetolik too, and Chingatok if you will, for I’ve fixed on a spot whereon to pitch an observatory, and we must set to work on it without further delay. Indeed I would have got it into working order long ago if it had not been for my hope that the cessation of this miserable war would have enabled us to get nearer the North Pole this summer.”