328 FARTHEST NORTH 



fellow's. ' Look ! the brute has been dragging a clog 

 after him here.' By the light of the lantern we traced 

 the blood-marked path on among the hummocks. We 

 found the dead dogs, but no footprints except small ones, 

 which we all thought must be those of our little bear. 

 ' Svarten,' alias ' Johansen's Friend,' looked bad in the 

 lantern-light. Flesh and skin and entrails were gone ; 

 there was nothing to be seen but a bare breast and back- 

 bone, with some stumps of ribs. It was a pity that the 

 fine strons: doo; should come to such an end. He had 

 just one fault: he was rather bad-tempered. He had a 

 special dislike to Johansen ; barked and showed his 

 teeth whenever he came on deck or even opened a door, 

 and when he sat whistling in the top or in the crow's- 

 nest these dark winter days the ' Friend ' would answer 

 with a howl of rage from far out on the ice. Johansen 

 bent down with the lantern to look at the remains. 



'"Are you glad, Johansen, that your enemy is done 

 for ?' 



" ' No, I am sorry.' 



" ' Why r 



" ' Because we did not make it up before he died.' 

 "And we went on to look for more bear-tracks, but 



found none ; so we took the dead dosfs on our backs and 



turned homeward. 



" On the way I asked Peter what had really happened 



with him and the bear. ' Well, you see,' said he, ' when 



I came along with the lantern we saw a few drops of 



