CHAPTER XVIII.
THE PROFESSOR TAKES A COLD BATH.
"Give way, men!" shouted Ben Stubbs, who was in command of the boat;"them poor fellers must be perishin' of cold and hunger."
The boat fairly flew through the water, skillfully avoiding, underBen's careful steering, the great floes of ice which were driftingabout.
The boys and the professor were in the bow, eagerly scanning the raftwith the four black figures upon it. The castaways kept waving theirarms in the most pitiable fashion.
Suddenly the professor exclaimed:
"There's something queer about those men!"
"You'd be queer, too, if you was drifting about the polar seas on anold raft," returned Ben Stubbs.
All the men laughed at this and the professor said no more. But hescanned the "castaways" carefully, and so did the boys. As they drewnearer, the latter also began to observe that they were the funniestlooking men they had ever seen.
"They've got on long black coats with white waistcoats to theirknees," cried Billy.
"So they have," exclaimed Harry. "If it wasn't too ridiculous, you'dsay they had on evening clothes."
"They're not men at all," suddenly shouted the professor, with an airof triumph. "I thought I was not mistaken."
"Not men!" roared Ben. "What are the poor critters, then--females?"
"Neither men nor women," was the astonishing reply. "They arepenguins."
All the men turned at this, and one of them, who had sailed in thepolar regions before, announced, with a shout of laughter:
"The doc is right. Them's Emperor penguins, sure enough--taking ajoy-ride through the ice."
The queer birds betrayed not the slightest excitement at the approachof the boat, but stood gazing solemnly at it, waving their littleflippers,--somewhat like those of a seal, only feathered,--up and downin a rhythmic way.
"They act like band leaders," was Frank's remark.
"Better go back to the ship," said Ben, much disgusted at the upshootof the expedition, and somewhat chagrined, too, if the truth must betold, at the professor's triumph over him.
"No, let us catch one," urged the professor. "I would like to see ifit is possible to tame one."
"Yes, let's go up to them and see what they look like at close range,"cried Frank.
"All right, if we don't waste too much time," agreed Ben. "Give way,men."
They soon drew near the strange South Polar birds who blinked solemnlyat them as if to say:
"And who may you be?"
As they bobbed up and down on the piece of drift wood the boys hadmistaken for a raft, the sight was so ludicrous that the boys burstinto a hearty laugh.
"Hush," warned the professor, holding up his hand; "you may scarethem."
They were big birds of their kind, standing fully four feet, and itwas not strange that from the ship they had been mistaken forshipwrecked men; indeed, it is not the first time such an incident hasoccurred in the South Polar climes.
"Steady now, men," said the professor, bowing his lean form over thebow of the boat as they drew near to the penguins.
"Ah! my feathered beauties, if you will only stay there and not move,I will soon have one of you," he whispered to himself, as theboat,--the men rowing as silently as possible,--glided alongside.
The birds made no sign of moving, and evidently had not the slightestfear of the strange beings, such as the newcomers must have seemed tothem. Instead, they seemed mildly curious and stretched their necksout inquiringly.
"Here, chick-chick-chicky," called the professor, by an oddinspiration, as if he were calling to the chickens in the barnyard athome.
"Here, chick-chick-chicky. Pretty chick-chick-chicky."
Suddenly he made a grab for the nearest penguin, and at the sameinstant the boys gave a shout of dismay. As he seized it, thecreature--affrighted when it felt the professor's bony arms aboutit,--had dived and the scientist, losing his balance, had followed itinto the water.
This might not have been so serious, but the other penguins, seeingthe professor's plight, started to attack him, beating him back intothe icy water every time he came to the surface.
"Ouch, you brute--oh, boys, help--o-o-o-h, this water is cold. Get meout, somebody. Scat, get away, you penguins."
These were some of the cries uttered by the luckless professor, as hestruggled to get to the inside of the boat.
When they could, for laughing at the ludicrous plight, the men and theboys beat off the big penguins with the oars and hauled the professorinto the boat. His nose was pecked badly and was of a ruddy hue fromhis misadventure. Fortunately, one of the men had some stimulant withhim and this was given to the professor to drink and the strong stuffquickly revived him. He sat up in the boat and talked with animationwhile the boat was being rowed back to the ship.
"Bless my soul, what an adventure," he puffed. "Ouch, my poor nose. Ithought the penguins would peck it off. Boys, that penguin was asslippery as a greased pig and as fat as butter. Oh, dear, what amisadventure, and I've ruined a good suit of clothes and broken abottle of specimens I had in the pockets. Never mind, I can catch somemore."
Thus the professor rattled on, from time to time feeling his veryprominent nose, apparently in some doubt as to whether he stillretained the feature.
"I guess you are cured of penguin hunting?" remarked Frank.
"Who, I?" asked the professor, in mild surprise. "Oh, no, my dear boy.I will get a penguin yet, even if I have to fight a regiment of them.I'll get one, never fear, and tame him to eat out of my hand."
"I hope so, I'm sure," said Frank, with a smile at the odd old man'senthusiasm.
"Hullo, what's that?" cried Billy, suddenly pointing.
"What?" chorused the boys.
"Why that creature off there on the ice flapping about,--it seems tobe in distress."
"There is certainly something the matter with it," agreed Frank.
What seemed to be a huge bird was struggling and flapping about on thefloes at no great distance from them.
"Other birds are attacking it!" cried Billy.
It was so, indeed. Numerous albatrosses and other large sea birds andgulls were hovering above the struggling creature, from time to timediving and pecking it.
"What in the world can it be?" cried Frank.
"We might go and see, but the professor is wet and should get back tothe ship," said Ben.
"Oh, my dear sir, don't mind me," demurred that individual. "If Icould have a little more of the stimulant--ah, thank you--as I wassaying, I am never in a hurry to go anywhere when there is aninteresting question of natural history to be solved."
"Very well, then," said Ben, heading the boat about; "if you catchcold, don't blame me."
"Oh dear, no. I wouldn't think of such a thing," said the professor,his eyes eagerly fixed on the disturbance of the birds.
"It's a big wounded albatross!" suddenly exclaimed Billy, as the boatdrew near to the object the other birds were attacking.
"So it is," cried Harry.
"A monster, too," supplemented the professor. "It would be a greatfind for any collection."
"Perhaps we can catch it and stuff it," cried Billy.
"Perhaps so; but we must hurry or the others will have pecked it tobits."
The boat flew through the water, and soon they were near enough todrive the other birds away. The wounded albatross, however, did notrise, but lay flapping on the ice.
"Why, bless my soul, how very extraordinary!" cried the professor,forgetting his wet clothes and his chill in his excitement.
"What is?" asked Frank.
"Why something seems to be holding the bird down under water," was theanswer.
"It's a string!" suddenly cried Ben, standing up in the stern of theboat.
"A string?" echoed the professor.
"Sure enough," was the reply.
And so it proved. The albatross was held down by a bit of stringencircling its neck so tightly as to almost choke it, and which hadbecome caked w
ith ice till it was quite heavy.
"I know that bird," shouted the professor, suddenly, as they drewalongside it.
"You know it?" echoed the others, thinking the old man had taken leaveof his senses.
"Yes, yes," cried the professor. "It's the one that nearly dragged meoverboard. See whether the wire loop is still round its neck."
"It sure is," exclaimed Ben, as, disregarding the pecks of the bigbird, he dragged it struggling into the boat and pinioned its wings.
"Well, this is a most extraordinary happening," smiled the professor,as happy as if he had been left a million dollars. "This will be mostinteresting to scientists and will make my name famous. 'The Sandburralbatross, which flew many scores of miles with my lasso round itsneck.' Wonderful. Poor creature. I suppose as it dipped into the wavesfor its food a thin film of ice formed on the cord till it grew tooheavy for it to carry."
"That's right," said Ben, who had cut the lasso and released thecreature from its hampering weight. "I'll bet this weighs ten ortwelve pounds."
He held out a huge chunk of ice for their inspection.
"That's great weight for a bird to carry so many miles," said Frank.
"It is, indeed," said the professor, patting the bound albatross onthe head. "That makes it all the more remarkable."
"What are you going to do with the albatross, now that you have him?"inquired Billy Barnes.
"I must make a cage for him out of packing cases, and perhaps we cantame him," said the professor.
All agreed that this would be an interesting experiment, and the boatpulled back to the ship with one passenger more than she had left itwith. As for the professor, he was in the seventh heaven of delightall the way back.
He sat on a stern seat by the albatross, which was looking wildlyabout, and kept talking to it as if he thought it could understandhim.
"Ah, my beauty, I'll astonish Professor Tapper with you when I gethome," he said; "you are worthy to be ranked with the fur-bearingSouth Polar pollywog. I will feed you till your feathers shine and youare the envied of all birds. I am the most fortunate man in theworld."
All hands enjoyed a hearty laugh as, on the return to the ship, theiradventures were narrated.
"The poor professor never seems to go out but what he gets into somepickle or other," laughed Captain Barrington, who was joined in hismerriment by Captain Hazzard. "But, dear me," he went on, "where isthe professor?"
They ran out on deck and found the man of science seated in the boat,which had not yet been hauled up, as the vessels were not to weighanchor till the next day,--the berth where they lay being a snug one.
"Why don't you come on board, professor?" asked Captain Hazzard,indicating the accommodation ladder, which had been lowered.
"I-I'd like to, but I can't," responded the professor.
"You can't? Why, what on earth do you mean? You'll freeze to deathdown there," roared Captain Barrington.
"I wish you'd send down a small stove," wailed the scientist.
"A small stove; why, what do you want with that?"
"Why the fact is, I'm sozzen to the feet--I mean frozen to the seat,and if you can't send down a stove, send down another pair oftrousers!" was the calm reply.
When the perfect tempest of laughter at the poor professor's expensehad subsided, he was hauled to the deck in the boat and handed a longcoat. Only till then would he consent to get up from the seat, anoperation which was attended by a loud sound of ripping and tearing.
"Ha, ha, ha," roared Captain Hazzard. "First the professor nearlyloses his life, and then he loses his trousers!"