It was not a large island, but nevertheless Bobby and Jimmy
deemed it worthy of exploration, and so, bent upon discovery, they left
their elders to talk, while they wandered about.
"There's a dotar on the shore," exclaimed Bobby, stopping suddenly and
indicating the dark body of a harbor seal sunning itself comfortably
upon the surface of the smooth, flat rocks near water. "Wait here,
Jimmy, till I get my gun and try a shot at him."
And away he ran, presently to return with his gun--the same that Abel
had found in the boat at the time he discovered Bobby. It was
double-barreled, and a shotgun, but now both barrels were loaded with
round ball. And loaded with ball it was effective enough at fifty yards
or so, but far from certain in accuracy at a greater distance.
"Let's work down through the brush as far as we can," suggested Bobby,
"and then I'll crawl down on him, if he'll let me, for a good close
shot."
Slowly they crawled, and cautiously, looking at nothing and paying
attention to nothing but the seal, which, presently becoming conscious
of danger perhaps, grew restless; and though Bobby was not as near his
game as he should have wished, he threw up his gun and fired. The
bullet, after the manner of bullets fired from shotguns at long range,
went wide of its mark, and the seal, after the manner of seals, slipped
gently into the water and was gone.
"There he goes!" exclaimed Bobby in disgust, springing to his feet. "If
I had only had a rifle!"
"Yes," said Jimmy, "you'd have--"
Jimmy's sentence was cut short by the sound of a heavy tread behind
them, and wheeling about our young hunters discovered a big polar bear,
in the edge of the brush and not twenty yards away.
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