This went on for a long time; but it was so cleverly and artfully managed that it took the others' attention, and they all lay there on the ice in the warm sunshine, watching the cunning animal as it continued to get nearer and nearer to the herd, while the old bull, with his head erect and his white tusks curving away sat up in the most stupidly stolid fashion. "Why, the silly great bull will let the bear get close up to him!" cried Steve at last, after looking at one of these evolutions. "He managed quite six yards then. Why doesn't the creature give the alarm?" "Not so stupid as you think, sir," said Johannes. "I've watched these animals many times before, and you'll see that he'll give the word before long; I mean he'll do something to start them all off." All the same, it did not appear as if the huge walrus realised the danger approaching so steadily, for every now and then, while performing some antic, the bear continued to lessen the distance between it and its prey, while simulating the greatest innocence and assuming to be thinking of anything but making an attack. So playful a creature, enjoying itself thoroughly in the sunshine, could never have approached a walrus herd before. Now it was rolling legs upward, and giving itself a peculiar wriggle, as if to scratch its back; then it was sitting up like a cat, and reaching round to have a lick at the part of its person which had just been rubbed in the ice. A minute later it was on its flank, with all four legs stretched out, and its muzzle in the snow; and all these changes were made with the most extreme deliberation, and as if the animal was intent only upon its own enjoyment, and was as sportive as the unwieldy fat calves rolling about near their mothers a short distance away. "It's all over," said Steve suddenly; for the animal had shuffled a little nearer to the herd, and then lain down with its head from them, and apparently gone to sleep. The doctor and Captain Marsham, tired of watching the bear, had started off with their pieces, leaving Steve with the two Norsemen, so that the lad's last remark was addressed to his companions. "No," said Jakobsen, smiling; "the sport has hardly begun." "Right," said Johannes. "Why, Mr Steve, you do not think that treacherous great brute would take all that trouble for nothing, do you?" "I don't know, I do not understand bears," replied Steve; "I only say look at him. Why, Johannes, if we had had the boat through, what a capture we might have made--the bear and plenty of walrus!" "Perhaps, sir," replied the Norseman drily. "What do you mean?" "We might have failed to get within shot." "And if we had, lost the walrus all the same," said Jakobsen. "Yes," said Johannes, "you are never sure of one of those great beasts." "Well, let's follow the captain," said Steve; "I'm getting a little cold." "Won't you stay and see the end of the bear's game, sir? He has finished his nap, and has begun to have another roll."