, and
awaited the word. Regnar whistled sharp and shrill, the combatants
suddenly separated, and each, rising until his flippers showed above the
surface, looked on all sides for the source of this sudden interruption.
At once both guns roared in unison, a distance of scarce twenty yards
intervening between the marksmen and their prey. Peter's mark, the
largest and most beautiful of the two, fell dead, with its head
transfixed with the arrow, which waved feebly above the crimsoned
surface, as the huge body trembled with the throes of dissolution. La
Salle's aim was less sure, and the novel missile tore through the neck,
just below the ear. A fountain of blood sprang ten feet into the air as
the dying animal fell back, spurning the bloody pool with tail and
flippers; but the mighty heart sent forth its wasted life-tide, until
its current was exhausted and the powerful "old hood" was like his
whilom rival--a lifeless mass of inert flesh.

"Well, I never see such ting shoot before. I use duck shot, goose shot,
sometime nails, and sometime little stones, and once in woods I kill
gleat bear with junk of lead: but I never shoot arrow before." Thus said
Peter, wondering at his own achievement.

Waring had noted with great curiosity the effect of the new missile.
"Where did you learn that, Charley? To think that a piece of soft wood
should kill such huge animals!"

La Salle had hastened to launch the boat, but stopped to answer a
question in which all seemed to take an interest. "About three hundred
years ago, Captain John Hawkins, a stout skipper of Devon, and one of
those old sea-dogs who helped to conquer the great Spanish Armada, had
these arrows, which he called 'sprights,' to distinguish them from those
still used with the English longbow, made in large quantities, to be
used in the muskets of his men. He claimed that they passed through and
through the bulwarks of the Spanish ships, and highly commended them to
his contemporaries. I should prefer bullets myself, but have no doubt
that they attain a great range, and have, before this, driven a piece of
soft pine nearly five inches into a hard spruce post. I should feel
perfectly safe in meeting a bear or wolf with no other missile in my
gun."

Regnar jumped into the boat, and the two pushed off and secured the
seals, both of which were very fat, but covered with blood, and much cut
about the head and neck. Securing them with a rope, they returned to the
shore, and wi