en to me. If you
will promise me to keep very quiet, and not to follow me whatever may
happen, I will show you how Kablunets overcome difficulties."

Of course the Eskimos were ready to make any promises that might be
required of them, and looked at their friend with surprise as he threw
off his sealskin coat and tightened the belt round his waist. But they
were still more surprised, when, without another word, he set off, in
only shirt and trousers, to climb the valley of ice, and make for the
spot where the bear sat in melancholy meditation.

While ascending, Rooney took care to avail himself of the rugged nature
of the ice, so as to conceal himself entirely from the bear--though this
was scarcely needful, for the animal's back was turned towards the
Kablunet, and his whole attention was concentrated on the gulls. As
Rooney wore Eskimo boots--the soles of which are soft,--he made little
or no noise in walking, and thus managed to gain the platform
unperceived by the bear, though visible all the time to the Eskimos, to
whom he looked little bigger than a crow on the height. Their delight,
however, began to be tempered with anxiety when they saw the reckless
man creep to within twenty yards of the monster, making use of the
ice-blocks as it had done before him.

The intentions of the Kablunet were incomprehensible to his friends.
Could it be that, ignorant of the strength of the beast and its tenacity
of life, the foolish man hoped to stab it to death with a small knife?
Impossible! And yet he was evidently preparing for action of some sort.

But Red Rooney was not quite so foolish as they supposed him to be.
Having gained the nearest possible point to his victim, he made a sudden
and tremendous rush at it. He knew that life and death were in the
balance at any rate; but he also knew that to remain inactive on that
iceberg would remove life out of the balance altogether. He therefore
threw all his energy of soul and body into that rush, and launched
himself against the broad back of the bear. It was an awful shock.
Rooney was swift as well as heavy, so that his weight, multiplied into
his velocity, sufficed to dislodge the wonder-stricken animal. One wild
spasmodic effort it made to recover itself, and in doing so gave Rooney
what may be called a backhander on the head, that sent him reeling on
the ice.

Curiously enough, it was this that saved the daring man, for if he had
not received that blow, the impe