THE SEA LEOPARD 
109 
as he swam. But suddenly a little cake of ice 
appeared in the water. It wasn’t more than 
ten feet square and not thick above the water 
at all. 
“If I can only reach that!” panted Mannie, 
as he put forth all his effort. And just before 
the leopard reached him he climbed panting 
onto the ice and was safe. 
“Why, hello!” said a voice right beside 
him. He nearly fell into the sea again. 
“Why, why,” he stammered, “it’s Stormy 
Petrel.” 
“Yes, that’s who it is,” said the other, mov¬ 
ing along on the cake of ice. “That was a 
narrow escape. Why didn’t you fly?” 
“Our folks don’t fly,” said Mannie sorrow¬ 
fully, at the same time wondering how he was 
going to get back to land and to his home. 
“Well, now, I call that too bad,” said 
Stormy, sympathetically. He spoke twice for 
himself and once for Mannie, for he had hoped 
very much that here at last was the very boy 
