“Turn up all hands!” shouted the captain, jumping down the hatchway, “Arm the men, Mr Bolton, and order the largest sledge to be got ready instantly. This will never do. Harness the whole team.”
Instantly the Dolphin’s deck was a scene of bustling activity. Muskets were loaded, jumpers and mittens put on, dogs caught and harnessed, and every preparation made for a sudden chase.
“There, that will do,” cried the captain, hurrying on deck with a brace of pistols and a cutlass in his belt, “six men are enough; let twelve of the remainder follow on foot. Jump on the sledge, Grim and Buzzby; O’Riley, you go too. Have a care, Fred; not too near the front! Now, Meetuck—”
One crack of the long whip terminated the sentence as if with a full stop, and in another moment the sledge was bounding over the snow like a feather at the tails of twelve dogs.
It was a long chase, for it was a “stern” one, but the Esquimaux never dreamed of pursuit, and, as their dogs were not too well fed, they had progressed rather slowly. In less than two hours they were distinguished on the horizon, far off to the southward, winding their way among the hummocks.
“Now, Meetuck,” said the captain, “drive like the wind, and lay me alongside of Awatok’s sledge, and be ready, men, to act.”
“Ay, ay, sir!” was the prompt reply, as the heavy whip fell on the flanks of the leaders.
A few minutes brought them up with Awatok’s sledge, and Captain Guy, leaping upon it with a clasp-knife in his hand, cut the traces in a twinkling, set the dogs free, and, turning round, seized the Esquimaux by the collar. The big chief at first showed a disposition to resent this unceremonious treatment, but before he could move, Grim seized his elbows in his iron grasp, and tied them adroitly together behind his back with a cord. At the same time poor Aninga and her baby were swiftly transferred to the sailors’ sledge.
Seeing this, the whole band of natives turned back, and rushed in a body to the rescue, flourishing their lances and yelling fiercely.
“Form line!” shouted the captain, handing Awatok and Aninga over to the care of O’Riley. “Three of you on the right fire over their heads, and let the rest reserve their fire. I will kill one of their dogs, for it won’t do to let them fancy that nothing but noise comes out of our muskets. Ready—present!”