“Imagination! As true as my name is Stump, I haven’t a bit of that article in me. The Stumps have all been matter-of-fact, from generation to generation!”
Harry then proposed that an immediate search should be made for the mysterious creature, and, followed by Stump, who had provided himself with a harpoon and the boat hatchet, he moved quickly forward. They had not gone far when they heard a low growl, which seemed to proceed from some one of the masses of ice directly ahead of them. They were also enabled to distinguish a pair of gleaming eyes bent fiercely upon them, and which Stump declared were the same he had seen peering into the boat.
“Quick—the harpoon!” whispered Marline, as a dark form, rapidly approaching them, now became visible—“it’s a bear!”
The iron was soon in the young man’s hand, and lifting it, he darted it into the creature’s side. The bear, however, came on, tossing his head, snapping his teeth, and uttering ferocious growls; and before Marline had quite recovered his balance upon the slippery surface of the ice, the beast was so close to him, that he could feel its breath in his face; for the animal had by this time raised itself upon its hind-legs and drawn back its fore-paws preparatory to plunging its claws into the shoulders of the young man.
Stump, however, now rushed forward and buried the sharp edge of the boat hatchet deep in the animal’s neck, when, with a snarl of agony and rage, bruin turned upon his new adversary. Retreating backward, the latter continued to deal blow after blow upon the bear’s neck, until the hatchet was knocked from his grasp by a stroke from the paw of his opponent.
Stump slipped at the same moment, falling upon his back, and the next instant the bear, which had paused for a few seconds, seemingly for the purpose of twisting its half-severed head into its natural position, was about to throw itself upon the prostrate man, when Marline plunged his sheath-knife into the creature’s stomach, drawing the edge—“Norwegian fashion”—along its belly, and ripping open the flesh.
The blood of the already weakened animal poured forth in a perfect torrent, and with a faint growl of defiance, the bear fell expiring upon the ice.
“Ay, ay,” said Stump, as he regained his feet and proceeded to smooth his ruffled pigtail, “he’s a dead lubber, sure enough. I’ve heard stories before now about them creatur’s up this way, not showing much fight, but twist me if I don’t think this one is an exception, although he isn’t much taller than a common-sized Newfoundland dog, and very lean at that.”
“The animal was half starved, as you can perceive by its appearance,” replied Marline, “and that accounts for its ferocity. As a general thing a bear of this kind will run before an armed man.”
“Ay, ay, this creatur’ hasn’t had any thing to eat for a long time I’ll be bound, having got adrift, somehow, on the ice. It’s a brown bear, I think, although it’s so dark that it’s hard to make out the color. My eyes! I never yet liked to meet an enemy in the dark!”