All of a sudden there was a loud cracking noise, and Menie felt the ice
moving under him! He looked back. There was a tiny strip of blue water
between him and the shore!
The strip grew wider while he looked at it! Menie knew that he was
adrift on an ice raft, and he was terribly frightened. Nip and Tup
cuddled close to him and whined with fear.
Menie understood perfectly well that he might be carried far out to sea
and never come back any more. He put his hands to his mouth and yelled
with all his might!
Koko was still following the birds, and did not hear Menie's cries.
Menie could see him running up the beach after the birds, and he could
see his father working over his kyak near his home.
He even saw Monnie come out of the tunnel and go to watch her father at
his work. They seemed very far away, and every moment the distance
between them and the raft grew greater.
Menie screamed again and again. At the third scream he saw his father
straighten up, shade his eyes with his hand, and look out to sea.
"Oh," Menie thought. "What if he shouldn't see me!" He shouted louder
than ever! He waved his arms! He even pinched the tails of Nip and Tup
and made them bark. Then he saw his father wave his hand and dive into
the tunnel.
In another instant he was out again and pulling on his skin coat. Then
he took the kyak on his shoulders and ran with it to the beach. Monnie
and Koolee came running after him.
They were doing the screaming now! Every one in the village heard the
screams and came running down to the beach, too.
When Menie saw his father coming with the kyak, he wasn't afraid any
more, for he was sure his father would save him. He wasn't even afraid
about the cakes of ice that were floating in the water, though there is
nothing more dangerous than to go out in a kyak among ice floes. One
bump from a floating cake of ice is enough to upset any boat, and I
don't like to think of what might happen if a kyak should get between
two big cakes of ice.
Kesshoo ran with his kyak as far as he could on the ice. Then he got in
and fitted the bottom of his skin jacket over the kyak hole and
carefully slid himself into the open water.
Once in the water, how his paddle flew!
It seemed to Menie as if his father would never reach him! He sat very
still on the ice pan with the dead seal beside him, and Nip and Tup
huddled up against him.
At last Kesshoo came near enough so he could make Menie hear everything
he said. "Menie," he cried, "if you do exactly what I tell you to, I
can save you.
"I will throw you my harpoon. You must drive it way down into the ice.
Then by the harpoon line I will tow your ice pan back toward shore.
When we get to the big ice I will find a place for you to land.
"You must be ready, and when I give the word jump from your ice raft on
to the solid ice."
Then Kesshoo threw his harpoon, and Menie drove it into the ice with
all his might. Slowly Kesshoo drew the line taut, turned his kyak
round, and started for the shore. The journey out had been dangerous,
but the journey back was much more so, for Kesshoo could not dodge the
floating ice nearly so well. He had to pick his way carefully through
the clearest water he could find. Very cautiously they moved toward
shore.