But should he get away? This question came into Polargno’s mind. The Esquimaux boats at this season were kept prepared for whaling expeditions, and in the bow of this one there laid a harpoon with a nice long coil of rope. The boy glanced from this to the shining back of the seal that lay so temptingly just above the surface of the water. He knew all about seals. He had helped kill many a one. That was very different from fighting one entirely alone, but then the glory would be so much greater if he conquered. A seal is a timid animal, but when brought to bay it can fight boldly and fiercely enough, and Polargno knew well that there was a chance of his coming to grief if he once began the combat. But then again the glory was so much the greater if he conquered. He wished to wipe out the memory of his ridiculous adventure with the Arctic fox, which had brought upon him the laughter of the whole village, and was a joke against him to that very day. These thoughts passed swiftly through his mind, and he made his determination. He cautiously paddled towards the seal, but this act alarmed the creature, and it sank into the water out of sight. Polargno knew it would come up again to breathe, and he uncoiled the harpoon line, and held the weapon all prepared to throw. Meantime the canoe drifted down to the very spot where the seal had sunk, and Polargno looked down into the deep green water, thinking he might see it coming up. But it rose in an entirely different place, on the other side of the boat, and at quite a distance. Polargno was by no means sure of his aim in making such a long throw; but, putting himself into the attitude he had seen experienced harpooners assume, he sent the harpoon whizzing through the air with a straight, steady motion that carried it with a wide sweeping curved line into the back of the seal, just above the tail. Down into the water went the animal with a rush that made Polargno’s canoe reel and dance. If it had been a small whale, or even a sea-lion, that the boy had undertaken to capture in this fashion, it would have dragged down the canoe, harpoon, rope, and all, leaving to Polargno the pleasant task of swimming home and telling the news. But the seal was not quite strong enough for this, though it did its best; and, each time that it rose to the surface after “sounding,” Polargno wound the line tighter and tighter around the strong supports to which it was fastened. In this way he brought the seal nearer and nearer the canoe. By the time its strength was pretty well spent it had so short a line that it could dive only a few feet below the surface. And then Polargno began to wonder how he should get it to the shore when it was dead. It would be too heavy a body for him to manage alone, and there was no one in sight on the shore to whom he could call for help. He did not wish to cut the body adrift, for then he was not likely to get it again.