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Updated: May 17, 2025
It was at this critical point that Grummidge came in sight of the combatants, and ran at full speed to the rescue. But he was still at a considerable distance, and had to cross the tongue of ice before he could reach the floe. Meanwhile the seal opened its well-armed jaws to seize its victim by the throat. Swinton felt that death stared him in the face. Desperation sharpened his ingenuity.
The skipper, as his wont was, gave the order in a stern tone of command, and resigned the tiller to Grummidge, who came aft at the moment. The men saw with surprise that a heavy squall was bearing down on them from the eastward. Mutiny flew, as it were, out at the hawseholes, while discipline re-entered by the cabin windows. Even Big Swinton was cowed for the moment.
Blackboy bounded away in wild haste. "H'm! he seems in a hurry. Perhaps it's a bear this time. Well, mate, how d'ye feel now?" he added, closing the door and returning to his seat. "Grummidge," said the sick man, in a low voice, "I'll never git over this. That seal have done for me. There's injury somewheres inside o' me, I feel sure on it. But that's not what I was going to speak about.
He thrust his left hand as far as possible down the throat of his adversary, and, seizing it with the other arm round the neck, held on in a tight though not loving embrace! The struggle that ensued was brief. The seal shook off the man as if he had been but a child, and was on the point of renewing the attack when it caught sight of Grummidge, and reared itself to meet this new enemy.
"You've been holding a meeting, comrades, I think," said Swinton, looking somewhat suspiciously at the group of men, as he came up and flung down his load. "Yes, we have," said Grummidge, advancing, hands in pockets, and with a peculiar nautical roll which distinguished him.
"The paleface is right," he said, after a minute's thought. "Only one shall die. Let the prisoners decide among themselves who shall be killed. Go, Bearpaw has spoken waugh!" A few minutes later, and the prisoners, with their friends, were assembled in the cave discussing this new phase of their case. "It's horrible!" said Grummidge. "D'ye think the chief is really in earnest?"
"Now I tell you what it is, Master Hendrick," said Captain Trench, the day after their arrival at the Indian camp. "I see this is goin' to be an ugly business, an' I give you fair warning that I'm goin' to git surly. I won't stand by quietly and see Grummidge and my men slaughtered before my eyes without movin' a finger.
Of all the abominations that mortal man ever put between his grinders, I think the worst is that vile stuff " He was interrupted by a sudden outbreak of wrath at the fire next to theirs, where Big Swinton, Grummidge, and several others were engaged, like themselves, in preparing supper.
"You see, lads," observed Grummidge, when discussing this subject, "it's quite plain that we shall have to spend the winter here, an' as I was a short bit to the south of these seas in the late autumn one voyage, I have reason to believe that we had better house ourselves, an' lay in a stock o' provisions if we would escape bein' froze an' starved."
"All right," said Swinton, with a resigned look, "go an' fetch the boys. But I say, Grummidge, shake hands before you go, I don't want to carry a grudge agin you into the next world if I can help it. Goodbye." "No, no, mate, if that's to be the way of it I'll stick to 'ee. D'ye think you could manage to git on my back?" "I'll try."
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