14 Arctic Adventure Read Online Free PDF Page B

every one of them was kept warm by the dogs who pressed against him on both sides or the dogs beneath or above him.
    ‘Pretty smart dogs to think of that way of keeping warm,’ Roger said. He was about to enter the tent when Olrik stopped him.
    ‘First get rid of your snow dust,’ he said. ‘It’s all over you. You look like a ghost. If you go into the tent that way and start your little stove, the snow dust that covers you will melt and soak into your clothes. Then if you come out your wet clothes will freeze and you will be-dressed in ice.’
    All three began to brush off the snow powder that covered them, blow it out of their noses, take it out of their ears and eyes, dump it out of their pockets, and turn their pockets inside out.
    It was only when they were free of the pesky snow dust that they dared enter the tent, light the small portable stove, and eat.
    ‘All I want to do now is sleep,’ Roger said. Hal and Olrik were quite willing to do just that. Hal was the only one who carried a watch. He took it out and looked at it. It had stopped. Whether he had banged it against some icy nunatak or some snow dust had gotten into it, there was no doubt that it was useless.
    ‘Well, it doesn’t matter what time it is,’ Hal said. ‘We’re all tired —let’s sleep.’
    It was some seven or eight hours later that Roger woke and looked into the face of a polar bear. It had forced its head in between the flaps and seemed to be trying to decide which of these juicy morsels to eat first. Roger had no desire to be a bear’s breakfast. His yell woke up his two companions and they stared with horror and disbelief as the great beast forced its way into the tent.
    Olrik felt guilty. He should have brought a gun. But Hal had told him not to because they were not killers.
    But the polar bear is a killer and could not live if he were not. He must kill if he wants to eat. What do three non-killers do if they face a killer?
    Hal picked up the heavy frying pan and prepared for battle. Before he could land this heavy weapon against the bear’s nose, the unwelcome visitor turned into one who was very welcome. The monster went straight to Roger and rubbed its great furry head against the boy’s shoulder.
    ‘It’s Nanook!’ cried Roger. ‘Put away the frying pan.’
    The bear lay down beside Roger, gargling something that may have been his effort to say, ‘Good Morning’. Roger put his arms around the great furry neck. Both boy and bear were very happy.
    ‘How did he ever rind us?’ Roger wondered. ‘Our tracks must have been covered with snow.’
    Olrik explained. ‘It takes more than snow to defeat a bear’s sense of smell.’
    ‘I didn’t know we smelled as bad as all that,’ said Roger.
    ‘Bad or good, it’s all the same to the bear. Two things brought him to you. One was smell — the other was love.’
    They fed the bear and then had some food themselves. The three of them went out — the four of them —the bear following Roger.
    It was a sparkling morning — if it was morning. The sun was shining bravely. It had of course been shining all the time they were asleep. The thick tent-hides had kept out the light. Now there was no snow dust, no wind. The sky was a great dome of pure blue.
    But there was one thing that bothered Roger. ‘We’re supposed to be after animals and we haven’t seen one—except Nanook.’
    ‘They were all in their holes during the storm,’ Olrik said.
    ‘I don’t believe there are any animals up here. How could there be? There’s nothing for them to eat — not a sprig of grass, not a leaf, nothing.’
    ‘They don’t need grass or plants,’ said Olrik. ‘They’re all carnivores, meat-eaters.’
    ‘Where do they get the meat?’
    ‘By eating each other. The bear eats the wolf. The wolf eats the wolverine. The wolverine eats the fox, and so on. All these animals eat birds such as the auks, the barnacle goose, the pink-foot goose, the white-tailed eagle, the Greenland