And Mrs. Barnett, dragging Madge with her, ran along following the traces, and further on found that they were stained with blood.
The brave, tenderhearted woman, had spoken of saving someone in danger; had she then forgotten that there was no safety for any upon the island, doomed sooner or later to be swallowed up by the ocean?
The impressions on the ground led towards Cape Eskimo. And the two carefully traced them, but the footprints presently disappeared, whilst the bloodstains increased, making an irregular pathway along the snow. It was evident the poor wretch had been unable to walk farther, and had crept along on hands and knees; here and there fragments of torn clothes were scattered about, bits of sealskin and fur.
“Come, come,” cried Mrs. Barnett, whose heart beat violently.
Madge followed her, they were only a few yards from Cape Eskimo, which now rose only a few feet upon the sea-level against the background of the sky, and was quite deserted.
The impressions now led them to the right of the cape, and running along they soon climbed to the top, but there was still nothing, absolutely nothing, to be seen. At the foot of the cape, where the slight ascent began, the traces turned to the right, and led straight to the sea.
Mrs. Barnett was turning to the right also, but just as she was stepping on to the beach, Madge, who had been following her and looking about uneasily, caught hold of her hand, and exclaimed—
“Stop! stop!”
“No, Madge, no!” cried Mrs. Barnett, who was drawn along by a kind of instinct in spite of herself.
“Stop, stop, and look!” cried Madge, tightening her hold on her mistress’s hand.
On the beach, about fifty paces from Cape Eskimo, a large white mass was moving about and growling angrily.
It was an immense Polar bear, and the two women watched it with beating hearts. It was pacing round and round a bundle of fur on the ground, which it smelt at every now and then, lifting it up and letting it fall again. The bundle of fur looked like the dead body of a walrus.
Mrs. Barnett and Madge did not know what to think, whether to advance or to retreat, but presently as the body was moved about a kind of hood fell back from the head, and some long locks of brown hair were thrown over the snow.
“It is a woman! a woman!” cried Mrs. Barnett, eager to rush to her assistance and find out if she were dead or alive!
“Stop!” repeated Madge, holding her back; “the bear won’t harm her.”
And, indeed, the formidable creature merely turned the body over, and showed no inclination of tearing it with its dreadful claws. It went away and came back apparently uncertain what to do. It had not yet perceived the two women who were so anxiously watching it.
Suddenly a loud crack was heard. The earth shook, and it seemed as if the whole of Cape Eskimo were about to be plunged into the sea.
A large piece of the island had broken away, and a huge piece of ice, the centre of gravity of which had been displaced by the alteration in its specific weight, drifted away, carrying with it the bear and the body of the woman.
Mrs. Barnett screamed, and would have flung herself upon the broken ice before it floated away, if Madge had not clutched her hand firmly, saying quietly—
“Stop! stop!”
At the noise produced by the breaking off of the piece of ice, the bear started back with a fearful growl, and, leaving the body, rushed to the side where the fracture had taken place; but he was already some forty feet from the coast, and in his terror he ran round and round the islet, tearing up the ground with his claws, and stamping the sand and snow about him.
Presently he returned to the motionless body, and, to the horror of the two women, seized it by the clothes with his teeth, and carrying it to the edge of the ice, plunged with it into the sea.
Being a powerful swimmer, like the whole race of Arctic bears, he soon gained the shores of the island. With a great exertion of strength he managed to climb up the ice, and having reached the surface of the island he quietly laid down the body he had brought with him.
Mrs. Barnett could no longer be held back, and, shaking off Madge’s hold, she rushed to the beach, never thinking of the danger she ran in facing a formidable carnivorous creature.
The bear, seeing her approach, reared upon his hind legs, and came towards her, but at about ten paces off he paused, shook his great head, and turning round with a low growl, quietly walked away towards the centre of the island, without once looking behind him. He, too, was evidently affected by the mysterious fear which had tamed all the wild animals on the island.
Mrs. Barnett was soon bending over the body stretched about the snow.
A cry of astonishment burst from her lips:
“Madge, Madge, come!” she exclaimed.
Madge approached and looked long and fixedly at the inanimate body. It was the young Eskimo girl Kalumah!
IX
Kalumah’s Adventures
Kalumah on the floating island, two hundred miles from the American coast. It was almost incredible!
The first thing to be ascertained was whether the poor creature still breathed. Was it possible to restore her to life? Mrs. Barnett loosened her clothes, and found that her body was not yet quite cold. Her heart beat very feebly, but it did beat. The blood they had seen came from a slight wound in her hand; Madge bound it up with her handkerchief, and the bleeding soon ceased.
At the same time Mrs. Barnett raised the poor girl’s head, and
