14 Arctic Adventure (2 page)

So now, clad in the thick rubber Neoprene and carrying on their backs the tanks of air that they could breathe while searching for the monster, they joined Olrik and walked the short distance to the beach.

Roger glanced back and saw that his bear was following him.

‘Stop him,’ Hal said. ‘Send him home.’

‘Easier said than done,’ objected Roger.

‘You don’t understand,’ Hal said. ‘Seals are a polar bear’s favourite food. If he goes down with you and comes on a seal, he’ll start eating it.’

‘I think I can teach him not to do that.’

‘He’ll just be a nuisance.’

‘On the contrary,’ said Roger, ‘he may be just what we need to capture an 800-pound mukluk. He’s stronger than both of us put together. But to help him learn, we’ll start with something smaller.’

Olrik set off for the nearby town of Thule to hire a truck in case the hunt for the giant seal was successful. Hal also asked him to bring some men to help.

The two boys walked out on the ice and stopped at a seal hole. The seals make holes and keep them free of ice so that they can poke their heads out and breathe. The brothers stood by the hole and waited. They did not budge an inch. The slightest scrape of a boot on the ice would scare away any seal.

At long last a black head came up through the hole. Hal grabbed it and tried to draw it out. Roger used his jackknife to make the hole larger.

‘Great,’ said Hal. ‘A harp seal.’ The black lines on the creature’s back did look like a harp. ‘This is just a pup. That’s good. He’s easier to handle than his six-foot father.’

Nanook, the bear, pushed forward. Was this to be his breakfast? Roger pressed his hand over the bear’s jaws and he obediently backed away. Lesson one. The pup was dropped into a sack.

Later a ringed seal was caught Again the bear was restrained. Lesson two.

After an hour they caught one more. This was a hooded seal, so called because his upper lip was so long and it flopped back over his head like a hood. Again, no lunch for Nanook. Lesson three.

All three valuable seals were in the bag.

Nanook was ready now to go down with the boys, and could be trusted not to sink his teeth into the great bearded seal if one should be found.

Roger already knew that the polar bear was a famous swimmer. It could swim six miles an hour and keep going non-stop for a hundred miles. No other bear could match this performance. Roger also knew that a polar bear could kill an 800-pound bearded seal with one swat of his paw. Roger must see that this did not happen.

Olrik was back with the truck—and half a dozen men.

‘We’ll be ready for you if you get a mukluk. Wish I could go with you but I have no wet suit and no scuba. By the way, keep a sharp lookout for another big beast —the oogjook.’

‘Never heard of it. What is an oogeljerk?’

‘The name is oogjook,’ said Olrik.

‘Is it a seal?’

‘A big one. Weighs as much as five men.’

‘Well, this oogleboogle,’ said Hal, ‘what’s it’s name in English?’

‘Doesn’t have one. But you’ll know it when you see it. It twists and wriggles like a ballet dancer. It’s unknown to most people here and perhaps even your father has not learned about it. But if you could get one he could probably sell it to a zoo for many thousands of dollars.’

‘All right,’ Hal said. ‘Here goes for the mukluk and the ooglebug.’

He knew very well that the word was oogjook but he enjoyed playing with it. Olrik laughed.

Although summer was coming, plenty of ice remained on the sea. But near by there was a narrow lane of open water, and here the two boys and the bear slipped below the surface.

The water near the surface was cloudy with plankton, tiny living cells that were the food of the baleen whale. But thirty feet down the water was as clear as glass. The temperature was close to freezing. The boys in their Neoprene suits didn’t mind it.

Seal pups were much interested in the visitors, and swam all around them. They came close and nibbled Roger’s hands. They cavorted and scampered like children let out of school. Hal’s watertight torch lit up the lively dance of the little fellows.

But even the hungry bear paid no attention to them.

Fish in all colours swam about, and the sea floor was a fairyland with shells of all sorts, crabs with rainbow backs, and swaying sea fans rooted in the bottom and looking exactly like plants—but Hal knew they were animals. What a sight —an animal with roots in the ground.

Then a mukluk hove into sight. The bearded seal was known to be a noisy fellow. ‘Chuck-chuck-chuck’ was his song, but sung so loudly that he could be heard plainly through the water. He came close and squinted with weak eyes at these curious creatures who had invaded his territory.

Hal at once threw a loop of rawhide rope over the big fellow’s head. He and Roger began towing the monster to the open break in the ice.

They soon found that they were as weak as cats when it came to towing an 800-pound monster.

Instead of them towing him, he was towing them. His great fins were like broad paddles, and with very little effort he could pull these two-legged beasts far away under the ice.

The bear! Nanook could help. Roger searched for him. His large pet had disappeared. Roger looked up, and there was the bear at the surface getting a breath of air.

Of course Nanook had no scuba. He must go up to the surface for air. But why did it happen just now when he was so badly needed?

He came at last, peering about for his friends. Then he saw them far away and deep down, at the mercy of the big seal.

Nanook sank to join them, and was he welcome! Roger put the end of the line between the bear’s teeth. It grew taut and the surprised mukluk paddled in vain. The boys swam toward the open water lane, and the 1,000-pound bear had no trouble in towing the bearded seal, whose whiskers trembled with astonishment as he was pulled into the water lane where the men waited at the edge of the ice.

He kept chuck-chuck-chucking as he was lifted up on to the ice and then slid up a ramp on to the truck.

‘Great,’ shouted Olrik. ‘You did a fine job.’

‘We didn’t do it,’ Hal said.

‘Then who did?’

‘Our four-footed giant. Without him the whole thing would have been a flop.’

‘Well, jump on the truck and we’ll go to town.’

‘Not quite yet,’ said Hal. ‘We saw something else that may have been the oogjook you were talking about. We’ll go back down and try to get it.’

So they went down, and saw to it that their bear went with them. They knew now that they could do nothing without him.

What they had seen before was still there. It did look as if it weighed as much as five men, and it squirmed, wriggled and twisted in a crazy dance.

They lassoed it and gave the end of the rope to their big pet. He dutifully hauled it, still wriggling, to the waiting men, who put it on the truck and tied it down. The bag of smaller seals was also loaded.

‘Where to?’ Olrik asked.

‘To the Thule air base,’ Hal said. ‘We’ll charter one of those flying box-cars, I think you call it a sky-van, and we’ll send it off tonight to our animal farm near New York. I’ll telegraph Dad right now to watch for it.’

He wired his father:

SENDING YOU TONIGHT BY SKYVAN HARP SEAL, RINGED SEAL, HOODED SEAL, HUGE BEARDED SEAL, AND AN OOGJOOK —DON’T LAUGH—THEY WILL ARRIVE AT YOUR PLACE TOMORROW MORNING. ALSO HAVE POLAR BEAR, BUT WILL KEEP HIM AWHILE. WE NEED HIM

LOVE, HAL

‘There’s one thing I don’t understand,’ Roger said after they had returned to their igloo. ‘Won’t those seals die because there’s no water in that plane?’

‘They’ll be all right,’ Hal said. ‘Long, long ago seals were land animals. In a way they still are. They have no gills like a fish to get oxygen from the water. They have to come up to breathe. They took to the sea because they could find food there. But they no sooner eat than they pop out of the sea. You remember Glacier Bay, Alaska?’

‘Sure.’

‘What did you see there?’

‘Hundreds of seals, each one sitting on a floating block of ice.’

‘Exactly. They liked to spend most of their time out of the water. And you remember the great rocks offshore along the Oregon coast. What did you see there?

Roger answered, ‘We didn’t actually see the rocks at all, because they were completely covered with seals.’

‘Right. They like to leave the sea, except when they are hungry. So you don’t need to worry about their one night in the sky van. When they get to the farm they can use the lake if they want to because there are fish in it. But when we get home I’ll bet we find them perched on the rocks, enjoying the fresh air.

The hole in the roof made by the great bear had been mended. Now Hal, Roger and Olrik sat in the warm snow house, chatting comfortably.

‘By the way,’ said Hal, ‘where did you learn English?’

The Eskimo answered, ‘In your country. I spent two years at Harvard. Later I’ll go again and finish.’

Hal was astonished. ‘I’ll bet you’re about the only Eskimo who has studied abroad.’

Olrik smiled. ‘Many of our people have gone to England or America to study. Especially they want to learn English.’

‘Why English?’

‘So they can get a job when they come back. Did you realize that we have six thousand Americans and English in Greenland? They run most of the industries here and the two big airports — one at Thule and one at Sondre Stromfjord. If an Eskimo wants a job he’ll be more likely to get it if he can speak English.’

‘But Denmark owns Greenland. Aren’t there a lot of Danes here?’

‘Yes—and they’re fine people —but they don’t have the technical skill of the British and the Yanks.’

‘I heard,’ said a rough-looking fellow who had just come in. ‘You’re right. We’re the smart ones.

You Eskimos are the dumbest people on earth. And I mean you.’

He was looking straight at Olrik. Olrik said nothing.

Hal objected. ‘Hold your horses, Zeb. They told me your name. You were here with the men who helped after the big bear bust our roof. And I recollect that you stood behind and did nothing.’

‘Why should I mix with a pack of Eskimos?’ blurted Zeb. ‘I keep better company than those ignorant blokes.’ Again he stared at Olrik.

‘What was your college?’ Hal asked.

‘College of hard knocks.’

‘Do you know,’ said Hal, ‘that you’re insulting a Harvard man?’

‘What’s that?’

‘A man who has studied at Harvard.’

‘Don’t know any jerk town named Harbard. Me — I’m from New York—biggest city in the world. And I’ve come here to get my pay.’

‘Pay for what?’

‘Helping save your silly snow house.’

‘You didn’t turn a finger to save anything. The Eskimos helped —just to be friendly —and they wouldn’t take a cent. But I’ll pay you to get rid of you.’ He pulled out a five-dollar bill and slapped it into Zeb’s hand.

‘Five dollars,’ grunted Zeb. ‘It ought to be fifty.’

‘I’ll give you fifty —fifty punches —if you don’t get out.’ Soft-spoken Hal was really losing his temper.

Zeb went out with a final threat. ‘I’ll see you again —you four-flusher.’

There was a shot. Hal was out at once. Nanook, who had been sleeping in the lee of the igloo, was on his feet growling. The rascal had tried to kill their pet bear. Hal and Roger felt Nanook’s hide. There was only a scratch near the neck.

Zeb was gone. He was so poor a shot that even a target as huge as a 1,000-pound bear had lost only a few hairs.

The boys cared when one day a caribou came sliding down the hill behind the igloo, broke the wall, and fell in.

A caribou in the house! That was just too much.

Was it bad luck or good luck? Dad had asked the boys to get a caribou. And now one had been delivered to them.

The caribou belongs to the deer family. He is sometimes called the northern deer. But he differs from the deer we are used to. He doesn’t have lovely brown eyes, and he’s not gentle and friendly.

This one began thrashing about wildly. For some reason, he didn’t feel at home in an igloo. His magnificent antlers ploughed into the kettle, the lamps, the pans, the dishes, and sent them all flying.

‘Let’s get out of here, quick,’ said Hal.

They got out, but not before they learned that the sharp horns of the caribou don’t feel too good when they penetrate tender parts of the human body.

To the caribou this was not a home but a prison which he would tear to bits. He was dangerous at both ends —he had his horns in front and his heels behind.

The caribou is famous for his kick. It can kill, and has killed many interfering animals including the two-legged kind that call themselves men.

‘He’ll rip the igloo to pieces,’ Hal said.

He was not exaggerating. The horns were tearing down the snow blocks on one side of the igloo and those terrible heels were turning the other wall into snow-dust.

The noise of clashing pots and pans brought Eskimos to see what was going on. Among them was Olrik.

‘Why did you put him in the igloo?’ Olrik wanted to know.

‘We didn’t invite him,’ Hal said. ‘He invited himself. What do you do in a case like this?’

‘Darned if I know,’ said Olrik. ‘That’s one thing Harvard didn’t teach us.’

Zeb arrived. He knew just what to do. He sneaked in over the fallen blocks of snow and grabbed the caribou’s stubby tail. At once the beast kicked Zeb in the stomach and sent him soaring ten feet away to land on a sharp rock. Zeb bent double, clutching his midriff and whimpering like a baby. He complained to Hal.

‘You’ve got to pay me for this.’

The fellow always wanted money for doing nothing.

Hal didn’t answer. He couldn’t waste time on a crybaby.

The igloo was now completely ruined. The caribou plunged out straight for the boys. Hal seized the horns and was lifted eight feet off the ground. Down he came but he still hung on. There were plenty of horns to go round, so Olrik and Roger took hold and brought the animal to a standstill.

Zeb, holding his stomach with one hand and a whip in the other, said, ‘I’ll teach the brute.’