ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD 39 



which threw the light of a dozen moons. 

 There were three seals out upon the ice at 

 that moment, and they all lifted their eyes 

 simultaneously to greet the illumination. The 

 man irresistibly looked up ; but in the same 

 instant, remembering the hunger in the igloo, 

 he cowered back again out of sight, trembling 

 lest some of the seals might have caught a 

 glimpse of his head above the ridge. Some 

 dozen rods away, at the other side of the air- 

 hole, the great white bear also raised his eyes 

 towards that mysterious light, troubled at 

 heart because he knew it was going to hamper 

 his hunting. 



For perhaps two minutes the seals were 

 motionless, profiting by the sudden brightness 

 to scrutinize the expanse of ice and snow in 

 every direction. Then, quite satisfied that 

 no danger was near, they resumed their 

 sportive plungings while the instantly frozen 

 waters crackled crisply about them. For all 

 their vigilance, they had failed to detect, 

 on the one side, a narrow, black-tipped muzzle 

 lying flat in a cleft of the ice-ridge, or, on the 

 other side, a bunch of greyish fur, nearly the 

 colour of the greyish-mottled ice, which 

 covered the head of the man from the igloo 

 beside the Little Hills. 



And now, while neither the man nor the 



c 



