f ribs. It was a pity that the fine strong dog should come to such
an end. He had just one fault: he was rather bad-tempered. He had
a special dislike to Johansen; barked and showed his teeth whenever
he came on deck or even opened a door, and when he sat whistling in
the top or in the crow's-nest these dark winter days the 'Friend'
would answer with a howl of rage from far out on the ice. Johansen
bent down with the lantern to look at the remains.

"'Are you glad, Johansen, that your enemy is done for?'

"'No, I am sorry.'

"'Why?'

"'Because we did not make it up before he died.'

"And we went on to look for more bear-tracks, but found none; so we
took the dead dogs on our backs and turned homeward.

"On the way I asked Peter what had really happened with him and the
bear. 'Well, you see,' said he, 'when I came along with the lantern
we saw a few drops of blood by the gangway; but that might quite well
have been a dog that had cut itself. On the ice below the gangway
we saw some bear-tracks, and we started away west, the whole pack of
dogs with us, running on far ahead. When we had got away a bit from
the ship, there was suddenly an awful row in front, and it wasn't long
before a great beast came rushing at us, with the whole troop of dogs
around it. As soon as we saw what it was, we turned and ran our best
for the ship. Mogstad, you see, had moccasins (komager) on, and knew
his way better and got there before me. I couldn't get along so fast
with my great wooden shoes, and in my confusion I got right on to the
big hummock to the west of the ship's bow, you know. I turned here and
lighted back to see if the bear was behind me, but I saw nothing and
pushed on again, and in a minute these slippery wooden shoes had me
flat on my back among the hummocks. I was up again quick enough; but
when I got down on to the flat ice close to the ship I saw something
coming straight for me on the right-hand side. First I thought it
was a dog--it's not so easy to see in the dark, you know. I had no
time for a second thought, for the beast jumped on me and bit me in
the side. I had lifted my arm like this, you see, and so he caught
me here, right on the hip. He growled and hissed as he bit.'

"'What did you think then, Peter?'

"'What did I think? I thought it was all up with me. What was I to
do? I had neither gun nor knife. But I took the lantern and gave
him such a whack on the head with it that the thing broke, and went
fl