Under the Sea to the North Pole Read Online Free PDF

best shot of the party, killed, during one morning, two dozen eider ducks. They knocked over in scores, or took in the nets, ptarmigan or polar partridges, black-throated divers, dovekies, a kind of pigeon or rather gull, with oily but succulent flesh.
    During the morning of the fifth day after they had taken up their quarters at Fort Esperance, Guerbraz ran into the station out of breath, and answered in gasps to Hubert’s eager questions,—
    “Cattle! Two miles to the north.” Isabelle heard him.
    “Cattle!” she exclaimed. “Musk oxen! I am after them!”
    For some days now, the girl had been in her shootinp dress. It became her wonderfully, and one could not wish more elegance and grace in a woman in a semi-masculine costume. She wore warm woollen knickerbockers gathered at the knees into leather gaiters, over which fell a short petticoat like that worn by vivandieres. A vest with a broad belt clothed her from waist to neck, and on her charming head was a cap of sable, fitted with ear flaps and a neck piece. A carbine, a masterpiece of precision as of artistic ornamentation, hung from her right shoulder, while from her left hung her bag and cartridge-belt.
    Thus equipped, Isabelle hurried out after Hubert and Guerbraz.
    As they came out of the house, they met the chemist, Schnecker.
    “Where are you running to, like that?” asked the Alsacian.
    Hubert replied as laconically as Guerbraz,—
    “ Cattle! If you want to come, look sharp.”
    The scientist wanted no repetition of the advice. He also rushed into the house to get his gun.
    But already Hubert, Isabelle, and Guerbraz were scaling the lower hills, and, hiding behind the heaps of rocks, were approaching the musk oxen as quickly as possible. They were not very numerous, and consisted of a bull, two cows, and two calves. The five beasts were placidly pasturing on the scanty herbage, and showed no alarm at the threatened attack on them.

    Suddenly the two hunters and their companion arrived within range and three reports echoed simultaneously. Two of the cows and one of the calves were seen to fall; the bull was also shot, but rose and made off, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
    This did not suit Guerbraz, who had hit him in the haunch. Without thinking of the danger, the Breton rushed at full speed after the ox and contrived to cut off his retreat.
    Then the scene changed suddenly, and became extremely dramatic.
    Guerbraz, an old fisherman of Iceland and Newfoundland and an old Arctic voyager, was endowed with prodigious strength. Already he had taken from his belt a short-handled axe with which he intended to strike the animal on the neck a little lower than the formidable cap made by the large horns, when the bull, renouncing flight, made straight for his assailant, and returned towards him at his fastest.
    Guerbraz, carried away by his own eagerness, and, unable to stop on the sloping ground, could not get out of the way. The furious beast met him as he came down the slope. Luckily the shock was not a direct one, but was only a touch on the shoulder, which sent him rolling on the rocky ground.
    But the bull, after passing the sailor some thirty yards, pulled up and returned to stamp on him, or to butt him with his horns. Guerbraz, stunned by his fall, could not get out of the way.
    Suddenly there was another report and the ovibos fell dead at the sailor’s feet.
    Isabelle ran up, her gun smoking; Guerbraz seized her hand and kissed it piously.
    “You have saved my life, mademoiselle,” he exclaimed. “I must have my revenge. A life for a life.”
    Isabelle could hardly speak for want of breath. And besides, the incident was followed by another as a pendant.
    There was a fifth report, and Hubert, who was just reaching his companions, felt the wind of a bullet at less than a foot from his face. Turning quickly, he discovered Schnecker about sixty yards behind. He it was who had just fired.
    “You are a bad ,shot, sir!” exclaimed the lieutenant, in