sir!" cried Raed. "Spoken like a true son of the South! Ah!
you did always outrank us in gallantry. No discount on it. Had your
heads been as true as your hearts, the result might have been
different. But here come the ladies. We must do our prettiest to
please 'em, or we are no true knights. By the by, we resemble the
wandering knight-errants not a little, I fear."

"Only their object was adventure, while ours is science," added Kit.

"Scientific knights!" laughed Wade. "Well, the world moves!"

The _oomiak_ was now within fifty yards.

"Let's give 'em a salute!" exclaimed Kit. "Roll the ball out of the
howitzer!"

"Oh! I wouldn't; it may scare 'em," said Raed.

"No, it won't. Where's a match?"

_Bang_ went old brassy out of the stern.

It did startle them, I fancy. Something very much like a feminine
screech rose in the _oomiak_. It was quickly hushed up, though, with
no fainting, but any quantity of _heh-heh-ing_ and _yeh-yeh-ing_ from
the fat beauties.

"Now give 'em two more from the muskets--two at a time--when they come
under the side!" shouted Kit. "Hobbs, you and Don first!
Ready!--fire!"

Crack, crack!

"Now Weymouth and Corliss!"

Crack, crack!

"There! I now consider their arrival properly celebrated. And here
they are under the bows! Pipe the side for the ladies, captain!"

"Bless me!" exclaimed Raed; "how are we to get 'em aboard? Can't climb
a line, I don't expect."

"Wouldn't do to give 'em the ratlines!" exclaimed Kit; "might
entangle their pretty feet. What's to be done, captain?"

"I--give--it--up!" groaned Capt. Mazard. "Hold! I have it: the old
companion-stairs,--the ones we had taken out. They are stowed away
down in the hold."

"Just the thing!" cried Raed; "the very essence of gallantry!"

"Corliss, Bonney, and Hobbs," shouted the captain, "bear a hand at
those old stairs,--quick! Don't keep ladies waiting!"

The old stairs were hurried up, and let down from the side. The
captain stood ready with a stout line, which he whipped around the top
rung, and then made fast to the bulwarks. "That'll hold 'em," said he.

The _oomiak_ was then brought up close, and the foot of the stairs set
inside the gunwale. The _oomiak_ was about twenty-seven feet in length
by six in width. Like the _kayaks_, it was covered with seal-skin; or
perhaps it might have been the hide of the walrus. The framework was
composed of both bone and wood tied and lashed together. This was the
women's boat,