CHAPTER VIII.

A FIGHT WITH THE ESQUIMAUX.

The Esquimaux were lashing their dogs to furious speed as they came on down over the snow waste.

They had seen the two explorers and were making for them.

Pomp was alarmed.

“Golly, Marse Frank!” he cried, “I can’t say dat I jes’ likes de looks ob dat crowd at all.”

“No!” replied Frank, with some agitation. “We must be ready for them. They evidently mean business.”

“Does yo’ fink dey gib us a fight, sah?”

“Yes!”

“A’right! den I reckon we jes’ be ready fo’ dat crowd!”

“We must!”

On came the Esquimaux at full speed.

In a moment they surrounded the two explorers.

Leaping from their sledges they grasped their spears and started for their foes.

But Frank and Pomp threw their rifles to their shoulders.

“Hold on!” shouted Frank. “Come no further!”

The Arctic natives halted.

They stood some fifty paces distant and made menacing gestures at Frank and Pomp.

This did not disturb Frank.

He felt no fear.

He knew that with his repeater he could thin out the ranks of the foe in quick time.

The Esquimaux were not so foolish as not to see this themselves.

One of them, a thick-set, burly ruffian, now advanced.

He held up his hands in token of amity, and cried:

“Inglese man, hallo! No shoot! No kill Eskimo!”

“I’ll kill you precious quick if you don’t drop those spears!” cried Frank.

“Eskimo no hurt Inglese. No be afraid. Be heap friend!”

The duplicity of the scoundrel was apparent and almost laughable.

Frank smiled.

“I think you’re a crack liar!” he retorted. “I don’t believe you.”

“Honest Eskimo. No hurt!”

“Keep your distance!”

Frank clicked the hammer of his rifle ominously. The big villain understood this and very wisely retreated.

The Esquimaux now held a council.

It was quickly apparent that they did not dare to attack two plucky men.

They leaped into their sledges, and with baffled and derisive yells drove off madly over the ridge again.

Frank guessed their purpose.

This was to go for reinforcements.

“We must get out of this, Pomp!” he said; “this will never do. If they come back with a big gang they’ll annihilate us.”

“A’right, sah.”

“We will go back to the Explorer.”

Frank started for the defile.

But before he reached it he saw that it was filled with Esquimaux.

Their path to the Explorer was cut off.

What was to be done?

It was a desperate situation.

Quick action was what was needed now. Frank knew this.

But it would be flatly impossible to go around the island.

The Esquimaux would easily cut them off, and a fight at close quarters was to be by all means avoided.

The Esquimaux now were advancing to the attack.

Where they had all come from so suddenly was a mystery.

There seemed fully one hundred of them. They came over the ridges and through the defiles in a solid body.

There was no way but to retreat before them.

This meant to the shores of the island, then out upon the ice pack, and, perhaps, to the mainland.

Frank and Pomp fell back before the Esquimaux.

But they continued to dispute every inch of ground.

They fired steadily and with telling effect, dropping many of the foe.

But still the Esquimaux came on.

They hurled their javelins and arrows, and some of them narrowly missed the two white men.

But they managed to successfully dodge them.

Now the shore was reached.

Then the two plucky white men were driven out upon the ice.

Here they were able to make a better fight.

Behind the ice hummocks and elevations they found shelter and were able to pour in a destructive fire.

The battle waxed hot and furious.

But the numbers of the Esquimaux were so great that it became necessary to steadily retire.

There was danger that they would surround them.

This would bring the fight to close quarters, which would be fatal.

Thus the battle went on across the ice-field.

In the light of the Arctic day the two explorers were compelled to retreat slowly until they finally came to the mainland.

Here high cliffs were back of them.

A dense grove of Arctic firs was upon their summit.

Frank and Pomp here resolved to make a stand.

The Esquimaux charged up the cliffs, and Frank worked the repeating rifles while Pomp loaded.

The pluck of the Esquimaux was most surpassing.

“Golly, Marse Frank!” cried Pomp, “dey jes’ mean fo’ to hab our scalps, don’t dey?”

“You are right!” said Frank. “When our ammunition gives out it will be a serious question with us.”

“Dar amn’t twenty rounds more, Marse Frank!”

The young inventor’s face paled.

“You don’t mean it?”

“Dat am right, sah!”

“Then I am afraid we are lost!” groaned Frank. But suddenly his face brightened.

“What is that?”

Frank pointed up the shore.

A large body of men, also Esquimaux, were coming on the run.

“Massy sakes, Marse Frank, dar am mo’ ob dem!”

“It’s all right!” cried Frank, wildly. “We are saved!”

Pomp looked astonished.

“How can yo’ say dat, Marse Frank? Dar’s mo’ ob dem!”

“Yes, but they are of another tribe and not of the warlike kind. You will see pretty quick.”

The distant yells of the newcomers had a startling effect on the Esquimaux attacking Pomp and Frank.

They seemed alarmed and began to scramble for the ice floe.

A more demoralized set was never seen than they.

The newcomers pursued them even to the island, where a hot battle was waged.

But a number of the friendly Esquimaux remained behind and now made signs to Frank and Pomp.

One of them, a tall and handsome fellow, who seemed to be the leader, came forward excitedly.

“My God!” he cried. “Is it possible that these are fellow countrymen of mine?”

“Roger Harmon!” cried Frank, excitedly. “Is not that your name?”

The Esquimaux leader, so much taller than his companions, gave a mighty start.

“That is my name!” he cried; “but how did you know it?”

“Why, bless you, your father asked me to look for you while upon my exploring trip hither,” replied Frank.

“My father?”

“Yes.”

“Then he is alive?”

“Oh, yes, and firm in the hope that you will be restored to him.”

A wild, joyful cry rang from the castaway’s lips.

“God be praised!” he cried. “I had never hoped for such joy as this. But where is your ship?”

“Over yonder island.”

“What is your mission here?”

“To reach the North Pole.”

Roger Harmon shook his head.

“Abandon it!” he said; “no good will come of it. I have dwelt here with the Esquimaux for many years and have not even been able to find my way home. If any human beings could reach the Pole, they could. But they never have!”

“Ah, but I am better fitted to perform that feat,” said Frank, confidently.

“Then you mean to persevere?”

“Yes.”

“I like your pluck and hope you will succeed.”

“I shall. Have no fears upon that score.”

“You have been attacked by these Matrodas? Rascally fellows!”

“Yes.”

“I am glad that we happened along in time to aid you.”

“So am I,” said Frank; “but come, you will go with us to the Explorer.”

Young Harmon drew a deep breath.

“I can hardly realize it,” he said. “I had begun to think that the time would never come when I should leave these awful solitudes!”

“Well, it has come,” said Frank, lightly, “and your father will be made the happiest man in the world.”

“That makes me happy. But I must first take leave of these Esquimaux who have been so kind to me.”

Roger went down upon the shore and called the Esquimaux all to him.

Then in a speech in their tongue, which he had mastered, he expressed to them his regrets at leaving them.

They seemed deeply affected.

But Roger finally succeeded in parting from them, and with Frank and Pomp started for the Explorer.

As they passed through the defile upon the island, the last of the Matrodas were retreating to the farther shore.

Roger Harmon acted like one in a trance.

“Indeed!” he said, sincerely, “I can hardly believe my good luck. I had given up all hope of ever seeing my native land again.”

Very soon now the open sea came again in view.

The Explorer could be seen lying in the midst of the pack ice.

Roger looked astonished.

“Where is your ship?” he cried.

“Don’t you see it out there?” said Frank.

“What, that a ship? It looks more like a large-sized canoe.”

“It is a new kind of ship,” said Frank with a laugh. “It is a submarine boat, and you will understand it better when you see it.”