A MYSTERIOUS LIGHT.
"Take him off,--take him off. If I were not running he'll bite me,"
shrieked the scientist as he sped along.
"Whatever is it?" shouted Frank, regarding the strange sight with
amazement.
"It's a sea-leopard. Ouch!--he bit me then. Shoot him or something,"
screamed the professor, scooting round in circles like a professional
runner; for he knew that if he stopped the creature would surely nip
him hard.
Frank hastily ran into the hut for his rifle and returned in a moment
followed by the others. Half the occupants of the camp were out by
this time to watch the outcome of the professor's quandary.
Frank raised his rifle and took careful aim--or as careful aim as he
could with the professor rushing along at such a pace, but even as the
rifle cracked the professor tripped on a snow hummock and down he
came. The yell he set up echoed back from the naked, rocky crags that
towered at the back of the camp.
"Don't holler so, the creature's dead," cried Frank, as he and the
boys came running up to where the recumbent professor lay howling in
the snow.
"Oh, dear, I do seem to have the worst luck," moaned the scientist.
"First, I'm nearly drowned by a killer whale, then I'm almost pollowed
by a swenguin--no, I mean swallowed by a penguin, and now a sea
leopard attacks me."
As he spoke the professor got to his feet and the dead sea-leopard, as
he called it, fell over on the snow. It was a ponderous creature, much
like a seal, but with huge tusks and a savage expression, even in
death. It was about five feet in length.
"What made it tackle you?" asked Harry.
"I was down by the beach collecting some curious specimens of polar
sea-slugs, when I felt a tug at my coat-tails," said the scientist. "I
looked round and saw this creature glaring at me."
"Why didn't you shoot at it?" asked Billy, noting the outline of the
professor's revolver under his coattail.
"I had placed a specimen of antarctic star-moss in the barrel of my
revolver for safe-keeping, and didn't wish to disturb it," explained
the professor; "so I thought the best thing to do under the
circumstances was to run. I never dreamed the creature would cling
on."
"Well it did, and like a bull-dog, too," said Billy.
"We'll have to be careful and not get snarled up with any
sea-leopards," said Harry, who had been examining the dead animal.
"Look at the monster's tusks."
"Yes, he could make a fine meal off any of you boys," remarked the
professor.
Suddenly he fell on his knees beside the sea-leopard and began
examining it carefully.
"What in the world are you doing, now?" asked Frank.
"I thought I might find a sea-leopard flea," was the response of the
engrossed scientist.
"Ah," he exclaimed, making a sudden dart; "here is one, a beauty, too.
Ah, ha, my fine fellow, no use your wriggling, I have you fast."
As he spoke he drew out one of the bottles of which receptacles his
pockets seemed to be always full, and popped the sea-leopard flea into
it.
"That will be a very valuable addition to science," he said, looking
round triumphantly.
A few days after this incident the polar night began to shut down in
grim earnest. Sometimes for days the boys and the other adventurers
would be confined to the huts. Entertainments were organized and
phonograph concerts given, and, when it was possible to venture out,
hunting trips in a neighboring seal-ground were attempted. All these
things helped to while away the monotony of the long darkness. In the
meantime the commanders of the expedition laid their plans for the
spring campaign, when the boys' aerial dash was to be made.
On one of the milder nights, when Frank and Rastus were on watch,
their first intimation that a strange and mysterious presence shared
their lonely vigil was made manifest. It was Rastus who called Frank's
attention to what was eventually to prove a perplexing puzzle to the
pole hunters.
As the colored man and Frank were pacing outside the huts, keeping
their watch, the negro suddenly gripped the boy's arm.
"Fo' de lub ob goodness, man, wha's dat?" he exclaimed, getting as
pale as it is possible for a negro to become.
"What?" demanded the boy. "I can't see anything."
He stared about him in the gloom.
"Ain't nuffin ter SEE," rejoined Rastus, in a low, awed tone. "But,
hark!"
The negro's ears, sharper than those of the white boy, had caught a
sound that later became audible to Frank.
It was a most peculiar sound.
Coming from no one direction that one could indicate with certainty,
it seemed to fill the whole air with a buzzing noise that beat almost
painfully on the eardrums.
While he gazed about, in perplexity at the phenomenon, Frank suddenly
descried something that almost startled him into an outcry.
In the sky far to the westward and, seemingly, high in the air, there
hovered a bright light!
The next instant it vanished so suddenly as to leave some doubt in the
boy's mind as to whether he had really seen it,--and, if he had, if it
might not have been a star or some other heavenly body.
He turned to his companion.
"Rastus, did you see a light in the sky there a second ago?"
The boy pointed in the direction in which the mystery had appeared.
"A light--?" repeated the puzzled negro, still scared at the buzzing
sound, which had now ceased. "You done say a light--a reg'lar LIGHT,
light?"
"Yes, yes," impatiently; "did you see one?"
"No, sah, no, indeedy," was the indignant response; "ah don' see no
lights."
"That's strange," said Frank, half to himself. "You are quite sure?"
Again the negro denied all knowledge of having beheld such a thing.
"Ef ah'd done seed anyfing lak dat," he declared; "ah'd hev bin
skedaddlin' fer ther hut lak er chicken wif a hungry coon afta'
it,--yas, sah."
Thoroughly convinced that his imagination had played him a trick,
Frank did not mention the incident, to his fellow adventurers and soon
almost forgot it. It was recalled to his mind in a startling manner a
few nights later.
This time it was Rastus that saw the strange light, and the yell that
he set up alarmed the entire camp.
"Oh, Lordy--oo-o-o-o-ow, Lawdy!" he shrieked; "ah done see a ghosess
way up in dar sky, Massa Frank!"
Frank seized the black by the arm, as he started to run.
"What do you mean, you big black coward," he exclaimed. "What's the
matter with you?"
"Oh, dat dar light," wailed Rastus. "Dat ain't no human light dat
ain't; dat light's a way up in dar sky. It's a polar ghosess, dat's
wha' dat is--de ghos' ob some dead sailor."
"Don't talk nonsense," sharply ordered Frank, as the others, hastily
bundled in their furs, came rushing out.
"Whatever is the matter?" demanded Captain Hazzard, gazing sternly at
the trembling negro.
"Oh, Massa Hazzard, ah done see a ghos' light in dar sky," he yelled.
"Silence, sir, and stop that abominable noise. Frank, what do you know
about this?"
"Only that I really believe he saw such a thing, sir."
"What, a light in the sky!" echoed Captain Barrington. "Did you see
it, too?"
"Not to-night, sir."
"Then it has appeared before?"
"Yes, it has," was the reply.
"But you said nothing of it," exclaimed Captain Hazzard.
"No; I thought it might be imagination. It appeared for such a short
time that I could not be certain if it was not a trick of the
imagination."
"Well, it begins to look as if Rastus is telling the truth," was the
officer's comment.
"Yas, sah, yas sah, I'se tellin' de truf, de whole truf, and
everything but de truf," eagerly stuttered the negro.
"Where did you first see the light?" demanded Captain Hazzard.
"Right ober de grable (gable) ob de ruuf ob de big hut," was the
reply.
"That's about where I saw it," burst out Frank.
"Was it stationary?" asked Captain Hazzard.
"Yas, sah; it's station was airy, dat's a fac'," grinned Rastus. "It
was high up in de air."
"That's not what I mean, at all," snapped Captain Hazzard. "Was it
moving or standing still?"
"Oh, ah see what yo' mean, Captain Hazzard,--no, sir, der was no
circumlocution ob de objec', in fac', sah, it was standin' still."
"For how long did you watch it?"
"Wall, sah, it jes flash lak de wink ob an eye and den it was gone."
"Possibly it was some sort of antarctic lightning-bug," ventured the
professor, who had been intently listening to the account of the
strange light.
"Hardly likely," smiled Captain Barrington. "Tell us, Rastus, what it
looked most like to you--what did it resemble?"
"Wall, sah, it presembled mos'ly dat big laight what yo' see on a
snortermobile befo' it runs ober you. Yas, sah, Cap't Barranton, dat's
what it looked lak, fo' sho."
"Does that tally with your impression of it, Frank?" asked Captain
Hazzard.
"Yes, sir, Rastus has put it very well. It was more like an automobile
headlight than anything else."
"Well, nobody could be driving an automobile in the sky," put in the
professor, decisively, as if the matter were disposed of in this way
without any more argument being wasted.
"No, but there are other vehicles that are capable of rising above the
earth," spoke Captain Hazzard, thoughtfully.
"For instance--?" breathed Frank, with a half-formed idea of what he
meant.
"For instance, airships," was the quiet reply.
"Airships," exclaimed Captain Barrington. "Then you think---?"
"That we have some very undesirable neighbors at close quarters,"
rejoined Captain Hazzard.