The
skins, however, when dressed into leather by Mrs. Abel, would prove of
splendid quality for boot tops, or, when dressed without removing the
hair, would supply them with many articles of clothing for their
comfort.
The day was terribly cold--Skipper Ed judged that the temperature must
have stood at least at fifty degrees below zero, and that even the
temperature of the sea water, where it was unfrozen, was well below the
freezing point. Once or twice, indeed, in spite of their enthusiasm, the
hunters retired to the _igloo_, where a lamp was kept burning, to warm
themselves.
Late that afternoon Jimmy wounded a seal on an ice pan, and it went into
the water. He seized a harpoon, but when the seal rose to the surface it
was so far away that the line could not reach it.
"Here!" shouted Bobby, laying down his gun and grabbing a paddle which
he had brought from Itigailit Island for such an emergency, "jump on
this pan. I'll paddle you out where you can get him."
They sprang upon a small pan, and, utilizing it as a raft, Bobby paddled
a few yards.
"There! There!" shouted Bobby. "There he is. He's most dead. You can get
him!"
Jimmy jumped to the side of the pan upon which Bobby was kneeling with
his paddle, and poising the harpoon was about to cast it when the pan,
too heavily weighted on that side, began slowly to turn. Bobby did not
see this, but Jimmy did.
"Don't move!" shouted Jimmy. "Stay where you are!"
And, without hesitation, Jimmy slipped from the pan and into the icy
sea, though he knew there was small chance for him to swim, and,
overcome by the shock of the terrible cold, he sank beneath the waves.
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