displayed in leaping over their backs and
under their legs, and holding on by their tails, while they vainly
endeavoured to catch him. The applause was frequent and prolonged, and
the two Esquimaux prisoners rolled about their burly figures and laughed
till the tears ran down their fat cheeks. But when Ben Bolt suddenly
caught the two bears by their tails, tied them together in a double
knot, and fled behind a hummock, which the Big Bear passed on one side
and the little Bear on the other, and so, as a matter of course, stuck
hard and fast, the laughter was excessive; and when the gallant British
seaman again rushed forward, massacred the Big Bear with two terrific
cuts, slew the Little Bear with one tremendous back-hander, and then
sank down on one knee and pressed his hand to his brow as if he were
exhausted, a cheer ran from stem to stern of the _Dolphin_, the like of
which had not filled the hull of that good ship, since she was launched
upon her ocean home!

It was just at this moment that Whackinta chanced, curiously enough, to
return to this spot in the course of _her_ wanderings. She screamed in
horror at the sight of the dead bears, which was quite proper and
natural, and then she started at the sight of the exhausted Bolt, and
smiled sweetly--which was also natural--as she hastened to assist and
sympathise with him. Ben Bolt fell in love with her at once, and told
her so off-hand, to the unutterable rage of Blunderbore, who recovered
from his wounds at that moment and, seizing the sailor by the throat,
vowed he would kill, and quarter, and stew, and boil, and roast, and eat
him in one minute if he didn't take care what he was about.

The audience felt some fears for Ben Bolt at this point, but their
delight knew no bounds when, shaking the Giant off, and springing
backwards, he buttoned up his coat and roared, rather than said, that
though he were all the Blunderbores and Blunderbusses in the world
rolled together, and changed into one immortal blunder-cannon, he didn't
care a pinch of bad snuff for him, and would knock all the teeth in his
head down his throat. This valorous threat he followed up by shaking
his fist close under the Giant's nose, and crying out: "Come on!"

But the Giant did not come on; he fortunately recollected that he owed
his life to the brave sailor, so he smiled, and, saying he would be his
friend through life, insisted on seizing him by the hand and shaking it
violently. There