"Pretty close shave, Louis," ventured a sailor.
"Humph," returned Louis, "dat's nothin'—nothin' at all." And with quite lordly dignity, despite the dripping brine, he stalked off to the cabin to change his clothes.
[CHAPTER XXI]
BEARS FOR A CHANGE
Soon after taking our third whale, we saw our first polar bears—two of them on a narrow floe of ice. When the brig was within fifty yards of them the mate got out his rifle and began blazing away. His first shot struck one of the bears in the hind leg. The animal wheeled and snapped at the wound. The second shot stretched it out dead. The second bear was hit somewhere in the body and, plunging into the sea, it struck out on a three-mile swim for the main ice pack. It swam with head and shoulders out, cleaving the water like a high-power launch and leaving a creaming wake behind. Moving so swiftly across the brig's course, it made a difficult target.
"I'm going down after that fellow," said Mr. Winchester.
He called a boat's crew and lowered, taking his place in the bow with his rifle, while Long John sat at the tiller. He had got only a short distance from the ship when Captain Shorey ordered Gabriel after him.