an't you think of an easier plan than lugging them
round the headland all that way by sea?"

"I'm sure I can't," Eric replied, with a hopeless stare.

"Then, I'll tell you," said Fritz. "What think you of our just taking
them up to the top of the plateau; and, after a short walk across the
tableland, pitching our bundle of spoil down right in front of our hut--
without first loading up the boat and then unloading her again, besides
having the trouble of toiling all the way from the beach to the cottage
afterwards?"

"Why, that's a splendid plan!" cried Eric; "almost good enough for me to
have thought of it."

"I like your impudence!" said Fritz, laughing. "Certainly, a young
sailor of my acquaintance has a very good opinion of himself!"

"Right you are," rejoined Eric, with his time-honoured phrase; and then
the two, as usual, had a hearty laugh.

Skinning the seals and packing up the layers of blubber within the pelts
was then the order of the day with them for some hours, Fritz pointing
out, that, if they removed all the traces of the combat before
nightfall, the seals would return to their old haunt the next day, the
evening tide being sufficient to wash away the traces of blood on the
rocks as well as bear to the bottom the bodies of the slain victims;
otherwise, the sad sight of the carcases of their slain comrades still
lying about the scene of battle would prevent the scared and timid
animals from coming back.

Consequently, the brothers worked hard; and, practice having made them
proficients in the knack of ripping off the coats of the seals with one
or two dexterous slashes with a keen knife along the stomach and down
the legs of the animals, they stripped off the skins in much less time
than might be imagined.

Then, the pelts and layers of blubber were rolled up together in handy
bundles and conveyed up to the plateau. This was a very tedious job,
necessitating, first, a weary tramp to and from the beach to where the
path led up to the summit of the tableland; and, secondly, a scramble up
the rocky and wearisome ascent of the plateau, this latter part of their
labour being rendered all the more difficult and disagreeable by the
bundles of blubber and skins, which they had to carry up on their heads
in the same fashion as negroes always convey their loads--a thing
apparently easy enough to the blacks by reason of their strong craniums,
but terribly "headachy" for Europeans unaccustomed to such burd