CHAPTER XX.
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 withamazement.
"It's a sea-leopard. Ouch!--he bit me then. Shoot him or something,"screamed the professor, scooting round in circles like a professionalrunner; for he knew that if he stopped the creature would surely niphim hard.
Frank hastily ran into the hut for his rifle and returned in a momentfollowed by the others. Half the occupants of the camp were out bythis time to watch the outcome of the professor's quandary.
Frank raised his rifle and took careful aim--or as careful aim as hecould with the professor rushing along at such a pace, but even as therifle cracked the professor tripped on a snow hummock and down hecame. The yell he set up echoed back from the naked, rocky crags thattowered at the back of the camp.
"Don't holler so, the creature's dead," cried Frank, as he and theboys came running up to where the recumbent professor lay howling inthe 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 pollowedby a swenguin--no, I mean swallowed by a penguin, and now a sealeopard attacks me."
As he spoke the professor got to his feet and the dead sea-leopard, ashe called it, fell over on the snow. It was a ponderous creature, muchlike a seal, but with huge tusks and a savage expression, even indeath. 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 polarsea-slugs, when I felt a tug at my coat-tails," said the scientist. "Ilooked round and saw this creature glaring at me."
"Why didn't you shoot at it?" asked Billy, noting the outline of theprofessor's revolver under his coattail.
"I had placed a specimen of antarctic star-moss in the barrel of myrevolver for safe-keeping, and didn't wish to disturb it," explainedthe professor; "so I thought the best thing to do under thecircumstances was to run. I never dreamed the creature would clingon."
"Well it did, and like a bull-dog, too," said Billy.
"We'll have to be careful and not get snarled up with anysea-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 theprofessor.
Suddenly he fell on his knees beside the sea-leopard and beganexamining 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 theengrossed 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 hispockets seemed to be always full, and popped the sea-leopard flea intoit.
"That will be a very valuable addition to science," he said, lookinground triumphantly.
A few days after this incident the polar night began to shut down ingrim earnest. Sometimes for days the boys and the other adventurerswould be confined to the huts. Entertainments were organized andphonograph concerts given, and, when it was possible to venture out,hunting trips in a neighboring seal-ground were attempted. All thesethings helped to while away the monotony of the long darkness. In themeantime the commanders of the expedition laid their plans for thespring 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 sharedtheir lonely vigil was made manifest. It was Rastus who called Frank'sattention to what was eventually to prove a perplexing puzzle to thepole hunters.
As the colored man and Frank were pacing outside the huts, keepingtheir watch, the negro suddenly gripped the boy's arm.
"Fo' de lub ob goodness, man, wha's dat?" he exclaimed, getting aspale 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 asound 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 almostpainfully on the eardrums.
While he gazed about, in perplexity at the phenomenon, Frank suddenlydescried something that almost startled him into an outcry.
In the sky far to the westward and, seemingly, high in the air, therehovered a bright light!
The next instant it vanished so suddenly as to leave some doubt in theboy's mind as to whether he had really seen it,--and, if he had, if itmight 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 buzzingsound, 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 nolights."
"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 binskedaddlin' 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 soonalmost forgot it. It was recalled to his mind in a startling manner afew nights later.
This time it was Rastus that saw the strange light, and the yell thathe set up alarmed the entire camp.
"Oh, Lordy--oo-o-o-o-ow, Lawdy!" he shrieked; "ah done see a ghosessway 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 thematter with you?"
"Oh, dat dar light," wailed Rastus. "Dat ain't no human light datain't; dat light's a way up in dar sky. It's a polar ghosess, dat'swha' dat is--de ghos' ob some dead sailor."
"Don't talk nonsense," sharply ordered Frank, as the others, hastilybundled in their furs, came rushing out.
"Whatever is the matter?" demanded Captain Hazzard, gazing sternly atthe 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 knowabout this?"
"Only that I really believe he saw such a thing, sir."
"What, a light in the sky!" echoed Captain Barrington. "Did you seeit, 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 shorttime that I could not be certain if it was not a trick of theimagination."
"Well, it begins to look as if Rastus is telling the truth," was theofficer's comment.
"Yas, sah, yas sah, I'se tellin' de truf, de whole truf, andeverything 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 thereply.
"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. "Itwas high up in de air."
"That's not what I mean, at all," snapped Captain Hazzard. "Was itmoving or standing still?"
"Oh, ah see what yo' mean, Captain Hazzard,--no, sir, der was nocircumlocution 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 theprofessor, who had been intently listening to the account of thestrange light.
"Hardly likely," smiled Captain Barrington. "Tell us, Rastus, what itlooked most like to you--what did it resemble?"
"Wall, sah, it presembled mos'ly dat big laight what yo' see on asnortermobile befo' it runs ober you. Yas, sah, Cap't Barranton, dat'swhat it looked lak, fo' sho."
"Does that tally with your impression of it, Frank?" asked CaptainHazzard.
"Yes, sir, Rastus has put it very well. It was more like an automobileheadlight than anything else."
"Well, nobody could be driving an automobile in the sky," put in theprofessor, decisively, as if the matter were disposed of in this waywithout any more argument being wasted.
"No, but there are other vehicles that are capable of rising above theearth," spoke Captain Hazzard, thoughtfully.
"For instance--?" breathed Frank, with a half-formed idea of what hemeant.
"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.
Boy Aviators' Polar Dash; or, Facing Death in the Antarctic Page 20