Don't fire till you are quite close to him." They were running after the bear at top speed while they thus conversed in hasty and broken sentences, when suddenly they came to a yawning crack in the ice, about thirty feet wide, and a mile long on either hand, with the rising tide boiling at the bottom of it.

Bruin's pursuers came to an abrupt halt.
"Now, isn't that disgusting ?" Probably it was, and the expression of chagrin on Fred's countenance as he said so evidently showed that he meant it; but there is no doubt that this interruption to their hunt was extremely fortunate, for to attack a Polar bear with a musket charged only with small shot, and a geological hammer, would have been about as safe and successful an operation as trying to stop a locomotive with one's hand.

Neither of them had yet had experience of the enormous strength of this white monarch of the Frozen Regions and his tenacity of life, although both were reckless enough to rush at him with any arms they chanced to have.
"Give him a long shot--quick!" cried Singleton.
Fred fired instantly; and the bear stopped, and looked round, as much as to say, "Did you speak, gentlemen ?" Then, not receiving a reply, he walked away with dignified indifference, and disappeared among the ice-hummocks.
An hour afterwards the two wanderers were seated at a comfortable breakfast in the cabin of the _Dolphin_, relating their adventures to the captain and mates, and, although unwittingly, to Mivins, who generally managed so to place himself, while engaged in the mysterious operations of his little pantry, that most of the cabin talk reached his ear, and travelled thence through his mouth to the forecastle.

The captain was fully aware of this fact, but he winked at it, for there was nothing but friendly feeling on board the ship, and no secrets.

When, however, matters of serious import had to be discussed, the cabin door was closed, and Mivins turned to expend himself on Davie Summers, who, in the capacity of a listener, was absolutely necessary to the comfortable existence of the worthy steward.
Having exhausted their appetites and their information, Fred and Tom were told that, during their absence, a bear and two seals had been shot by Meetuck, the Esquimau interpreter, whom they had taken on board at Upernavik; and they were further informed that the ice was in motion to the westward, and that there was every probability of their being released by the falling tide.