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AGAINST HEAVY ODDS 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/againstheavyoddsOOboyerich 
 
MAUNA AHD INt^OMAR URFRND THK HOl'SB. 
 
Against Heavy Odds 
 
 a Cale of jQorse heroism 
 
 BY 
 
 HJALMAR HJORTH BOYESEN 
 
 AUTHOR OF "the MODERN VIKINGS " " IDYLS OF NORWAY 
 
 " /ZTIMM A O " 
 
 GUNNAR" ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY W. L. TAYLOR 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1890 
 
Copyright^ i8go, 
 By Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 
 UNrvKRsiTY Pfrss: 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridgb. 
 
M66 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter Pagb 
 
 I. *'The 'Petrel' has Come!" ... i 
 
 II. The Rejected Olive-Branch ... 21 
 
 III. The Great Invention 46 
 
 IV. A Thorny Path 69 
 
 V. A Blow in the Dark 91 
 
 VI. A Friend in Need 116 
 
 VII. Vengeance Overtakes the Consul 141 
 
 VIII. The Day of Triumph 164 
 
 ivi801224 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 Ragna and Ingomar defend the House Frontispiece 
 
 Ingomar saves Little Thomas 20 
 
 Ragna in Trulson's Cottage 34 
 
 The Harpoon Gun 52 
 
 "Look here, Ingomar," she said, "you have 
 
 got some trouble" 72 
 
 "Well, young man, what can I do for you?" 80 
 
 Engstrom Outwitted 140 
 
 The Invention is Successful 170 
 
AGAINST HEAVY ODDS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " THE * PETREL ' HAS COME ! " 
 
 Consul Prebensen's barque, the " Petrel," 
 was making for the harbor. The shot she 
 had fired for a pilot had given such a tre- 
 mendous resonance in the frosty autumn air 
 that it had been heard in town; and now 
 all the population, both old and young, were 
 thronging down on the piers to give her a 
 right royal welcome. 
 
 For the prosperity of Vardoe was largely 
 bound up in the "Petrel." There was 
 scarcely a man, woman, or child outside of 
 the Lappish suburb who had not a relative 
 on board Consul Prebensen's barque. Some 
 had fathers, some brothers, some sweethearts, 
 and now they were to see them after an 
 absence of five months. 
 
2 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 There had been much anxiety expressed 
 of late for the " Petrel ; " and as the weeks 
 dragged themselves along in their slow mo- 
 notony up there within the Arctic Circle, 
 the anxiety had deepened into dread, and 
 the dread into certainty, that something had 
 happened to the ship. 
 
 Most likely she was only ice-bound, and 
 would drift southward when the ice broke up 
 in the spring; but in the mean while what 
 was to become of the wives and children at 
 home who had nothing to live on during 
 the long winter but the wages of the sailors ? 
 Starvation stared them in the face; that 
 was the long and short of it. 
 
 But why consider what might have been, 
 now that the barque is in sight? There her 
 main-mast is seen looming up beyond the 
 island. Look how neatly her white top-sail 
 catches the breeze ! And now the whole 
 beautiful *' Petrel " is rounding the headland, 
 and a tremendous cheer greets her from the 
 pier. 
 
 Two small cannon, at a signal from the 
 consul, begin to bang away, and manage to 
 
''The ' Petrel ' has Come ! " 3 
 
 make an awful racket. The "Petrel" re- 
 sponds as gallantly as if she were a man-of- 
 war. As the red flash preceding the report 
 leaps out over the water, the girls on the pier 
 put their fingers in their ears and scream, and 
 the boys jeer at them and yell with delight. 
 
 *' The * Petrel ' has come ! the * Petrel ' has 
 come ! " was the message that ran from house 
 to house like fire in withered grass; and if 
 anybody had doubted that the " Petrel " had 
 really come, those five or six cannon-shots 
 would have put an end to his doubts, for it 
 is not every day that people up there under 
 the North Pole can afTord to fire cannon, and 
 Consul Prebensen, rich as he was, was not a 
 man to waste his powder. 
 
 Every man's pulses bounded, and every 
 woman's heart leaped in her breast, when 
 that salute was heard, and in five minutes 
 more the town was as if deserted. The mer- 
 chants locked their stores, putting the keys 
 in their pockets, and gave their clerks a 
 holiday ; the smith and the carpenter pushed 
 away their tools, and with their aprons on, 
 hurried to the beach; and the servant-girls. 
 
4 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 with disordered hair, joyously excited, faces, 
 and sleeves rolled up to their elbows, climbed 
 upon bowlders and rocks, and stood shading 
 their eyes against the sun as they gazed at 
 the *' Petrel." 
 
 It was said afterward that there were but 
 four persons of sound body and mind left 
 in Vardoe that morning, and they were Con- 
 sul Prebensen's four clerks; for the consul 
 prided himself on his business principles. 
 He kept strict discipline in his store, and he 
 was not fond of holidays. 
 
 The " Petrel," after having fired her salute, 
 made two graceful tacks up the sound, and 
 it was lovely to see her luff round, with her 
 bright canvas all outspread, careening slightly 
 now to starboard, now to port, according as 
 she tacked. What enthusiasm she aroused 
 in the heart of every boy who stood there 
 on the pier yelling himself hoarse in her 
 honor ! 
 
 One boy there was, however, in that crowd 
 who was not at all joyous. In him the return 
 of the ship awakened anything but happy 
 memories. Ingomar Vang remembered a 
 
" The 'Petrel' has Come!'' 5 
 
 time when the "Petrel" had been in other 
 hands than those of Consul Prebensen. He 
 remembered bitterly the day when she came 
 from Grimstad, where she had been built, 
 with all her canvas swelling just as now, and 
 all the people for a month after talked of 
 nothing but Mr. Vang's beautiful barque. 
 
 Ingomar's father, who was of a mechanical 
 turn, had designed her, and it was for his 
 account and under his supervision that she 
 was put on the stocks and pushed forward 
 to completion. 
 
 Prebensen was then nothing but a clerk in 
 Mr. Vang's store, and not half so high and 
 mighty as he was now. The consul, who 
 now was the big man of the town, would not 
 have thanked any one who should have dared 
 to remind him how poor and forlorn he was 
 twenty-two years ago, when he presented 
 himself in Mr. Vang's office to apply for 
 work. 
 
 He had been an efficient clerk, there was 
 no doubt of that, and had gradually risen 
 by means of little ventures of his own, which 
 he had made on the sly, until he was able 
 
6 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 to establish himself on his own account as 
 Mr. Vang's rival. He prudently began in 
 a small way in a little back street, where a 
 shop could be had for next to nothing. 
 
 Mr. Vang was so far from suspecting a 
 rival in his former clerk that he lent him 
 more than once a helping hand when a 
 tightness of the money-market or other 
 causes threatened to ruin him. Kind-hearted 
 and unsuspicious as Mr. Vang was, it took 
 him a good while to discover that Prebensen 
 was systematically and with malice afore- 
 thought stealing his customers from him, 
 and availing himself of the connections which 
 he had made while in Vang's office to injure 
 his credit and rise upon his shoulders. 
 
 The upright and honorable merchant had 
 to have a good many proofs forced upon him 
 before he could accept such a conclusion ; but 
 Prebensen, as soon as he felt himself toler- 
 ably firm in the saddle, did not care to keep 
 him in uncertainty. 
 
 He captured the Lapp trade, which had 
 contributed fully one half of Mr. Vang's 
 income, right under the very nose of his 
 
*' The ' Petrer has Come!" 7 
 
 former chief. He did it by all sorts of low 
 arts to which a gentleman like Mr. Vang 
 could not condescend. He established a 
 brandy-shop in connection with his business, 
 and succeeded in making it so attractive to 
 the mountain Lapps who came to town to 
 make purchases that they usually left pretty 
 much all the earnings of the year in Preben- 
 sen's coffers. 
 
 He studied their superstitions m order to 
 make money out of their credulity; he 
 fraternized with them, and pretended to get 
 tipsy with them, in order to pull his net the 
 more surely over them ; while they regarded 
 him as a harmless, jolly young fellow. 
 
 To chronicle all the arts by which Mr. 
 Prebensen had risen to his present eminence 
 would make a considerable story in itself. 
 Suffice it to say that he had not been scru- 
 pulous in his choice of means. 
 
 Having secured the Lapp trade, he began 
 to throw out his toils in other directions. 
 The house of Vang, though greatly ham- 
 pered by its want of resources, had yet a 
 considerable income from its ships that sailed 
 
8 Agamst Heavy Odds. 
 
 every spring on sealing and whaling expedi- 
 tions into the Arctic Ocean ; but to equip 
 these expeditions required capital, and two 
 bad fishing seasons, which compelled the 
 house to extend its credit and cut off its 
 supply of cash, brought Prebensen his 
 opportunity. 
 
 For Prebensen rarely gave credit, except 
 in return for a mortgage ; and if the mortgage 
 was overdue, he foreclosed without mercy. 
 The bad seasons, thus, instead of reducing 
 his income rather increased it, for it enabled 
 him to sell out a lot of his customers, who 
 henceforth became his tenants, and depen- 
 dent upon him for their food and the roof 
 over their heads. 
 
 He now began to fit out boat-guilds for 
 cod-fishing, hiring the men, and giving them 
 a small share of the profits. But he under- 
 stood to perfection the art of driving hard 
 bargains ; and somehow, whether the fisher- 
 men who were tossed about on the sea in 
 cold and wet weather earned anything or 
 not, Prebensen always managed to save him- 
 self, and set apart a margin of profits. 
 
"The 'Petrel' has Come!" 9 
 
 Like a big spider, he sat in his office and 
 threw out his toils over the town, until there 
 was scarcely anybody outside of the circle 
 of government officials who was not more 
 or less involved in his web. 
 
 For the members of the government circle 
 he professed the greatest respect. When he 
 had moved away from the back street, and 
 established himself in roomier and more re- 
 spectable quarters, he went south to Bergen, 
 and returned with a wife whose family had 
 extensive connections in the whaling and 
 sealing trade. 
 
 He now began a social campaign, which 
 ended with the surrender of the pastor, the 
 major commanding the fortress, and all 
 others who belonged to the official circles. 
 They had formerly looked down upon him, 
 and had taken the part of Mr. Vang, who 
 was certainly a gentleman, and whose dinner- 
 parties and balls had, in earlier days, been 
 the great events of the winter. 
 
 But now Mr. Vang had all he could do in 
 keeping himself on his legs. He could no 
 longer afford to give balls and dinner-parties ; 
 
lo Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 and as Prebensen could, the people of qual- 
 ity who loved amusement gradually deserted 
 from the one to the other. 
 
 The ** Petrel " had been launched as a last 
 desperate hope by Mr. Vang. One or two 
 successful voyages might restore his fortunes, 
 and enable him to give his children the edu- 
 cation which was their just due, for they were 
 both more than ordinarily gifted. Ingomar, 
 the boy, who was then ten or eleven years 
 old, had an excellent head for mathematics 
 and mechanics, and delighted in nothing so 
 much as the making of miniature ships and 
 machines full of ingenious contrivances. 
 
 The father meant with the proceeds of the 
 *' Petrel's " voyages to send Ingomar to a 
 technical institute in France where he would 
 have an opportunity to develop his talent 
 to its full value. But, unhappily, in order 
 to equip the *' Petrel " for the expedition, and 
 moreover pay his taxes, which were con- 
 siderable, he was obliged to mortgage the 
 ship. 
 
 As it was held to be very disreputable to 
 bid at a tax-sale, — which was regarded as a 
 
' * The ' Petrel ' has Come !" 1 1 
 
 mere formality, — Mr. Vang chose to mort- 
 gage the " Petrel " for his taxes, and his 
 house for the equipment of the ship. For, 
 if lose he must, he would rather lose the 
 house than the " Petrel." He felt confident 
 that if the worst came to pass, the sheriff 
 would, as was his wont, make a nominal bid 
 at the auction, and knock it down to himself; 
 which only meant that whenever Mr. Vang 
 could conveniently pay the taxes, he could 
 have the sale cancelled, and in the mean 
 while he could let the ship sail and do with 
 it as he liked. 
 
 Such was the lax custom in those regions ; 
 as, in fact, all over Norway. But in this 
 instance Mr. Vang found, to his grief, that 
 he had made a miscalculation. When the 
 auction had to be held, for Mr. Vang was 
 desperately short of funds, and the sheriff 
 had made his nominal bid of one thousand 
 dollars, Prebensen stepped boldly up to the 
 bar and cried, " Two thousand ! " 
 
 The , consternation in the auction -room 
 when that bid was made challenges descrip- 
 tion. Every man looked at his neighbor, as 
 
12 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 if he thought the world was coming to an 
 end ; and the sheriff, who stood on his plat- 
 form with the hammer in his hand, was 
 stupefied. 
 
 "Did I hear an offer of two thousand 
 dollars?" he finally asked. ** I suppose it 
 was a mistake." 
 
 " No mistake about that," answered Pre- 
 bensen. *' I said two thousand dollars, and 
 I '11 say it again." 
 
 "But, my dear sir," remonstrated the 
 sheriff, "it is contrary to all custom — " 
 
 "Don't you bother about that! " inter- 
 rupted the merchant. " I know the law, 
 and I know what I am doing." 
 
 "But — but — the ship is worth ten times 
 as much at the very least ! " ejaculated the 
 officer, with indignation. 
 
 "All right! you bid her up if you like," 
 replied Prebensen, coolly. 
 
 But the sheriff was a poor man ; and as he 
 had not remotely contemplated such a pur- 
 chase, he might only involve himself in diffi- 
 culties, and incur Prebensen's hostility to 
 boot. It was the latter possibility which 
 
" The ' Petrel ' has Come ! " 13 
 
 silenced him ; for the consul was an ugly- 
 customer when he chose to make himself 
 disagreeable. It took a braver man than the 
 sheriff to thwart him in a plan upon which he 
 had obviously set his heart. 
 
 So it happened that the " Petrel," just as 
 she was about to restore the fortunes of the 
 house of Vang, took the wrong tack and 
 swelled instead the fortunes of its enemy, 
 Prebensen. 
 
 There was no use denying it. Prebensen 
 was now the big man of the town. He was 
 richer than all the rest put together. Vang 
 had been pushed to the wall ; he had failed, 
 lost everything he had, and now carried on 
 a modest little business as a junk-dealer and 
 provisioner of ships. 
 
 He had never tried to revenge himself on 
 Prebensen. Nay, though he heartily de- 
 spised him, he made no show of enmity. 
 The town was so small that an open feud 
 would have resulted in innumerable unpleas- 
 antnesses, and would have caused incon- 
 venience and detriment to all. Mr. Vang 
 thought he owed it to the community in 
 
14 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 which he Hved to conceal his feelings, and 
 simply appear to acknowledge that Mr. 
 Prebensen — now Consul Prebensen — had 
 ousted him in honest competition. 
 
 The " Petrel," as she dropped her anchor 
 in the middle of the harbor, and lay gently 
 rocking over her own pretty image, had 
 evidently a good conscience, in spite of all 
 the mischief she had wrought. The consul, 
 with his daughter Ragna, was standing in 
 his gig at the end of the pier, waiting for 
 his son Sophus, who was to accompany them 
 out to the barque. 
 
 Mr. Prebensen was a small, thin, wiry man, 
 with a sharp, clean-shaven face. He had 
 small, shrewd, steel-blue eyes, and a mouth 
 that shut like a steel trap. The expression 
 in his features was usually stern ; but in his 
 eyes there was an alert, secretly watchful 
 look, like that of a fox or weasel that has 
 to be circumspect in order to make a living. 
 You saw at once that he was not a man who 
 would be caught napping. 
 
 His daughter, who was standing at his 
 side, did not resemble him. She was four- 
 
''The ' Petrel ' has Come !" 15 
 
 teen years old, but tall for her age. What 
 was most noticeable about her was the free 
 and fearless manner in which she carried her 
 head, and the two long yellow braids that 
 hung down her back. Her face was fresh 
 and rosy, her hair a trifle curly, and her eyes 
 were full of mirth. 
 
 " Papsty," she said, — for by this jocose 
 name she was wont to address her father, — 
 " let us go without Sophus. He is always 
 late. You know it takes him as many hours 
 to make his toilet as it takes me minutes." 
 
 " It might not be bad if you paid more 
 attention to those things," replied the consul, 
 severely. 
 
 " Oh, pshaw ! " cried Ragna, with a toss 
 of her head. " But look ! there is Ingomar. 
 Let us take him along. He is such good 
 fun. Come here, Ingomar; don't you want 
 to row out to the * Petrel'?" 
 
 The boy, though he felt that his dignity 
 rebelled, could not resist so tempting an 
 invitation. To go on board the '' Petrel ; " 
 to mouse around in all her lockers and chests 
 and cabins, with all the fascinating foreign 
 
1 6 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 smells ; to hear the story of her voyage at 
 first hand, — the thought of such delights 
 made him dizzy. 
 
 So he slipped quietly into the boat, and 
 made himself as small as possible for fear 
 of getting into colHsion with the consul 
 The latter had not heard his daughter's in- 
 vitation, being absorbed in his own calcula- 
 tions; and as he caught sight of Ingomar, 
 seated on the thwart, said, with a snarl, — 
 
 " Get out of here ! Who has asked you, 
 I should like to know?" 
 
 " I have asked him, papsty," his daughter 
 replied ; *' he is my guest, and I want you to 
 be nice to him." 
 
 Ingomar was much inclined to step ashore 
 again, and would have done so if Ragna had 
 not put her hand on his shoulder and said, 
 " I want you to go with us, Ingomar. I shall 
 be offended with you if you don't stay." 
 
 Ingomar could not resist such a gentle 
 appeal. He felt how all the boys on the 
 pier envied him, as he sat there in the fine 
 black-painted gig with the red line under 
 the gunwale, and he saw presently that there 
 
"77?^ 'Petrel' has Come!" 17 
 
 was going to be a struggle to follow his 
 example. 
 
 '* Hi, there, missy ! " a little street Arab 
 called out; "take me along, won't you?" 
 
 Ragna shook her head smilingly. 
 
 " Oh, do take me along. Miss Ragna ! " an- 
 other boy begged ; " my dad is on board, and 
 I hain't seen him for nigh onto half a year." 
 
 She knew the boy, and kind-hearted as 
 she was, she found it impossible to refuse 
 him. His father, Tobias Trulson, was second 
 mate of the " Petrel." So she nodded her 
 head; and Thomas, eager for any signal of 
 acquiescence, tumbled headlong into the gig. 
 The boat gave a lurch; the consul lost his 
 balance, and would have gone overboard if 
 one of the oarsmen had not caught hold of 
 him. 
 
 ''Have you lost your wits, boy?" he 
 cried, white with anger; *' or do you think I 
 can take all the ragamuffins in town along 
 with me ? " 
 
 Starting forward, he gave the boy a kick 
 which sent him headlong into the water. 
 
 Just at that moment the consul's son, 
 2 
 
1 8 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 Sophus, dressed in the height of fashion, 
 made his way through the crowd; that is, 
 he hfted up his cane imperiously and com- 
 manded the people to open lane for him. 
 The people, though growling among them- 
 selves, fell apart obediently and let the young 
 gentleman walk unmolested through their 
 midst. 
 
 This incident seemed so much more im- 
 portant than the mishap to little Thomas 
 Trulson, that scarcely any one troubled him- 
 self about the manoeuvres of the second 
 mate's son. As ill luck would have it, he 
 came up, the first time, under the gig and 
 bumped his head against her keel ; and 
 though he was a good swimmer, the shock 
 confused him so that he did not know in 
 what direction he was moving. 
 
 As Sophus, redolent of Jockey Club, 
 stepped into the boat, Ingomar heard dis- 
 tinctly the bump against the bottom of the 
 boat, and leaning over the gunwale, saw, to 
 his horror, that the boy was sinking, and, 
 bent double with cramps, was unable to 
 direct his movements through the water. 
 
" The 'Petrel' has Come!" 19 
 
 Help was needed here, and needed quick- 
 ly. Without a moment's hesitation, Ingomar 
 flung off his coat and waistcoat and leaped 
 over the gunwale. The shock of the icy 
 bath was so great that it almost stunned 
 him. 
 
 " Go ahead ! " commanded the consul ; and 
 when the oarsmen seemed reluctant, he 
 added lightly : *' Vang's boy will pick up the 
 little ragamuffin, and so we are rid of both 
 of them. You take my word for it," he con- 
 tinued, with an unpleasant laugh ; " they will 
 scramble out. Weeds of that kind are 
 tough. The more you trample on them 
 the better they thrive. Neither fire nor 
 water will kill 'em." 
 
 The bright oars struck the water with 
 strong, rapid strokes, and the gig shot out 
 over the shining surface of the sound. The 
 consul and his son chatted carelessly, and 
 the son struck a storm-match and lighted 
 a cigarette. But Ragna, with a face tense 
 with excitement, stood up in the stern and 
 gazed toward the head of the pier. At last, 
 when she saw Ingomar hand up the stiff and 
 
20 Against Heavy Odds, 
 
 crooked little creature to a man in a boat, 
 and himself ascend the stairs to the pier, 
 dripping wet and half frozen, she flung her- 
 self down in the bottom of the gig and wept 
 as if her heart would break. 
 
 " Oh, father," she cried, " how could you do 
 it? How could you do it? " 
 
 *' Don't be a goose, daughter ! " said the 
 consul, with the same little snarl in his voice ; 
 " don't waste your tears on such trifles." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE REJECTED OLIVE-BRANCH. 
 
 Tobias Trulson, late second mate of the 
 " Petrel," was sitting in his small cottage, 
 which smelled of smoked salt fish and wet 
 clothes; but Tobias was so accustomed to 
 that smell that he did not mind it. In fact, 
 he would have missed it if it had been ab- 
 sent. A peat fire was smouldering upon a 
 hearth built of rough stones, and a pine 
 knot, stuck into a crevice in the wall, was 
 crackling and flickering, and throwing an 
 unsteady light over the miserable interior. 
 
 A long fishing-net hung in festoons along 
 the walls, — for Tobias was going to mend 
 it as soon as he got time, — and on a line 
 under the ceiling were wet clothes hung up 
 to dry. People up in that Arctic wilderness 
 are usually wet, and a good deal of their 
 
22 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 time is taken up in the effort to get dry. 
 They have to extract their scanty living 
 from the vast, wild Polar Sea, and if gen- 
 erations of struggle and hardship had not 
 toughened them, they would perish miser- 
 ably in the course of one winter. 
 
 Tobias Trulson was one of the toughest 
 and hardiest of this tough and hardy race. 
 He was a large, brawny man, with a deeply 
 wrinkled, weather-beaten face of coppery 
 color, and a head of thick brown hair, which 
 looked as if the wind had been playing the 
 mischief with it. It seemed to grow the 
 wrong way above the ears, and it had, 
 moreover, a curious " ripple," as the sea 
 has under a light breeze. 
 
 "You say he kicked you overboard?" 
 said the mate to his small son, whom he 
 was holding in his lap. The boy had an 
 ugly cut on his forehead where he had struck 
 the keel of Prebensen's gig. His little fists 
 were tightly clinched, and his eyes had a 
 strange glow in the unsteady light. His 
 father, half forgetting his question, sat star- 
 ing at him with a troubled look. Now and 
 
The Rejected Olive-Branch. 23 
 
 then he put his hand on the lad's hot fore- 
 head, and felt his rapid pulse hammering 
 away in his temples. 
 
 "And you say he kicked you overboard, 
 sonny?" Tobias repeated, after a while. 
 
 ** Yes, he did, pop," piped the child, feebly 
 nodding his tousled head. 
 
 ''And you hadn't been doin' nothin' to 
 him, Tom? " 
 
 The boy panted for a moment before he 
 found his voice. ** I jumped into his boat," 
 he said, with chattering teeth, '' 'cos the girl 
 asked me." 
 
 Tobias fell into a deep meditation. At the 
 end of fifteen minutes, during which he had 
 been staring fixedly into the fire, he arose, 
 and shaking his clinched fist toward the 
 ceiling, cried, — 
 
 *' I '11 pay him back for that some day ! " 
 
 His wife, Karen, who had been sitting in a 
 corner patching a pair of small trousers that 
 seemed beyond the stage of profitable patch- 
 ing, started up with a frightened face, and 
 putting her hand on his arm, implored him 
 to make no such rash threats. 
 
24 /igainst Heavy Odds. 
 
 " You know we are poor people, Tobias," 
 she said, '* and we depend upon the consul 
 for everything. We can't afford to quarrel 
 with our bread and butter." 
 
 " I 'd rather starve than eat his bread any- 
 more," growled Tobias ; " and as for the but- 
 ter, I have never had so much as a taste 
 of it!" 
 
 '• Yes, but the children ! Have you a right 
 to let them starve too in order to gratify 
 your own spite? " 
 
 " Oh, the children ! the children ! " groaned 
 the mate. " What a coward they have made 
 of me ! They tie my tongue and they tie 
 my hands ! " 
 
 " Bless their dear little hearts ! " said the 
 literal Karen ; " they could n't do that if 
 they tried." 
 
 An infant wrapped in rags, which rested 
 in her lap, here began to whimper; and she 
 hugged it to her bosom, hushing it with fond 
 words, as if to defend it against its father's 
 insinuations. 
 
 " Anyway, I should like to know what we 
 have to thank Prebensen for," the mate went 
 
The Rejected Olive-Branch. 25 
 
 on, after a pause. *' I have been a-workin' 
 myself to skin and bones these ten years to 
 make him rich, and what do I get fur it? 
 Well, now I come home after five months 
 of starvin' and freezin' and hard usage, and 
 not a cent do I find, is due to me. My 
 family has eaten up my wages, the clerk tells 
 me, and it is me as owes Prebensen, and not 
 Prebensen as owes me. Now, ef thar 's sense 
 in that, you jest call me a jackass and be 
 done with it." 
 
 With an angry scowl he looked about in 
 the poor room, at the rags which had been 
 stuffed into the window-sashes where the 
 panes had been broken, at the worn and 
 rickety floor which creaked when one walked 
 on it, and at the alcove in the wall where 
 four children slept on a bed made of straw 
 and dried seaweed. Two of them, who were 
 given to kicking off their covering in the 
 night, had been tied up in coffee-bags, — 
 marked "Java No. 2 " in big letters, — which 
 had been fastened about their necks. 
 
 "When you sailed in Vang's ships," 
 Karen observed, rocking the baby to and 
 
26 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 fro, •• it was different. Then we always came 
 out ahead." 
 
 " Yes, and God bless him for all he did for 
 me and mine ! " exclaimed Tobias, fervidly. 
 "It's hard, it's mighty hard, that such a 
 man must go to the bottom fur to raise such 
 a one as Prebensen. I don't understand it, 
 — no, blest if I do ! " 
 
 The little boy, whose head had been rest- 
 ing wearily on his father's shoulder, now 
 closed his eyes ; and Tobias, stealing on tip- 
 toe across the floor, put him down in the 
 second alcove, and covered him with an old 
 coat. Resuming his seat before the fire, he 
 began to cut up some plug tobacco in the 
 palm of his hand and to stuff it into his 
 pipe. 
 
 "Well, well," he said meditatively, blow- 
 ing out a cloud of smoke, " I suppose the 
 Lord knows what He 's about. I don't." 
 
 The mate fell into a brown study; and 
 little Thomas, who sat up wide awake the 
 moment his father had turned his back on 
 him, was vaguely wondering whether he 
 meant to kill Prebensen or only to thrash 
 
The Rejected OHve-Branch. 27 
 
 him, for Thomas knew no other methods of 
 retahation. In the intervals of his fever it 
 flattered him to have kicked up such a rum- 
 pus, and he felt something like gratitude to. 
 his father for having taken his part so warmly, 
 and grown so angry on his account. 
 
 The pain in his forehead could not prevent 
 him from imagining, in a dazed way, what 
 a hero he would be among the boys in 
 town when Tobias should have carried out 
 his threat, and he hoped in his heart that his 
 mother would not succeed in mollifying him. 
 He was aroused from this meditation by a 
 vigorous thump on the door. Tobias made 
 some slow preparations to rise, but before he 
 could reach the latch, the door was opened, 
 and a handsome curly head appeared in the 
 opening. 
 
 *' May I come in, Tobias?" aiBked a merry 
 young voice. 
 
 Without awaiting the mate's reply, a tall, 
 slender lad of sixteen bounded into the 
 room. He came Hke a fresh breeze, and 
 the hopelessness which had reigned there a 
 moment before was as if blown away. 
 
28 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 •' Ingomar ! " cried Tobias, joyously, grasp- 
 ing both the boy's hands. *' Well, well, well ! 
 How big and handsome we have grown ! I 
 should n't have known ye hardly, if it had n't 
 been fur them eyes of yourn, fur nobody 
 never had eyes with such snap in 'em. And 
 I was a-comin' round to see ye, Ingomar, my 
 lad, and thank ye fur haulin' that unlucky 
 little chap of mine out of the water when 
 Prebensen kicked him overboard.'* 
 
 " Oh, never mind that ! " answered In- 
 gomar, with a toss of his head. " It was 
 nothing." 
 
 ** Well, it came mighty near bein' some- 
 thin', though," the mate remonstrated, chok- 
 ing a little as he spoke. **But I hain't 
 simmered down enough to talk about it yet, 
 so ye be right; it's better to keep mum." 
 
 Ingomar flung his cap on a table which 
 stood between the windows, and pulled a 
 chair, made out of the vertebra of a whale, 
 up to the fire. 
 
 ** Well, old man," he said to Tobias, " I 
 am glad to have you safe home again. I 
 have missed you a good deal." 
 
The Rejected Olive-Branch. 29 
 
 Tobias took three long pulls at his pipe 
 before he replied. 
 
 " Thankee, Ingomar, thankee ! " he said at 
 last. *' Ef I was a-sailin' fur your dad now, 
 instead of that white-livered sneak as kicked 
 my little chap into the water, I should be hap- 
 pier to get home, lad, than I am to-day." 
 
 " And what kind of voyage did you have, 
 Tobias? That's what I came to ask you 
 about. They say Prebensen is pretty badly 
 cut up about something or other, and some 
 think it is because the ' Petrel ' has been 
 losing money." 
 
 **They be n't far wrong as to that, lad. 
 We 've had a mighty bad voyage, — bad 
 water, bad meat, and bad luck from the 
 start. We lost more whales than we ever 
 did in any three voyages before." 
 
 *' Lost them? How did you lose them? " 
 
 ** Two thirds of them sank as soon as we 
 had killed 'em." 
 
 ''What made them sink?" 
 
 " Bad luck, I guess. And then they were 
 so lean ! The Finmark whale is the strong- 
 est whale that swims in the sea. He takes 
 
30 Agamst Heavy Odds. 
 
 too much exercise to raise much fat, and it 
 is the fat makes him float. One monstrous 
 chap took us in tow fur ten hours, and I 
 don't know but he would have towed us 
 right on to the North Pole, if the line had n't 
 snapped." 
 
 "What did you do then?" 
 
 **What could we do? We had to let 
 him go." 
 
 " I should think something might be in- 
 vented to prevent the whale from sinking," 
 remarked Ingomar, thoughtfully. 
 
 ** If ye can invent that, lad, then your for- 
 tune is made," answered Tobias ; '* but when 
 you have found it, hold on to it, and keep 
 mum till you have your patent in your 
 pocket." 
 
 " Trust me for that ! " ejaculated the boy, 
 jumping up and pacing the floor, as was his 
 wont, when a new idea agitated him. 
 
 " It does seem feasible to me, Tobias," he 
 said, pausing abruptly in front of the sailor. 
 
 "It would have been worth twelve thou- 
 sand dollars to Prebensen on this voyage 
 alone, if our skipper had known of such a 
 
The Rejected Olive-Branch. 31 
 
 thing," the mate observed, knocking out his 
 pipe on his boot-hcel. 
 
 Ingomar seated himself again, and began a 
 regular cross-examination of his host in re- 
 gard to all the phases of whale-fishing. They 
 were very old friends, and fond of each other. 
 Tobias had taught Ingomar all he knew of 
 marine lore. He had taught him how to 
 row, swim, reef a sail, tack, jib, and steer, 
 and the more intimate knowledge of his 
 profession, such as weather-signs, good and 
 bad indications for fishing; and the doings 
 and peculiarities of the Ship-Brownie he had 
 also imparted to his favorite pupil under the 
 pledge of secrecy. 
 
 In the days of Mr. Vang's prosperity, when 
 Tobias was a young fellow, he had felt not 
 a little honored at being intrusted with this 
 most important part of the young master's 
 education, and had been an envied charac- 
 ter in the town on account of the prospects 
 which such a friendship opened up to him. 
 
 It was then freely hinted that Tobias knew 
 on which side his bread was buttered ; but 
 Tobias put such slanderers to shame. He 
 
32 y4 gainst Heavy Odds, 
 
 was a stanch and loyal soul, and as devoted 
 to Vang and his house in their adversity as 
 he had ever been in the days of their 
 opulence. 
 
 The two friends were so deeply absorbed 
 in their discussion of whaling that they did 
 not hear a twice repeated knock at the door. 
 The third knock, however, aroused Karen, 
 who had been dozing over the baby. She 
 went to the door, but had no sooner opened 
 it than she started back in astonishment. 
 
 " Have you lost your way in the dark, 
 miss," she asked, " and do you want some- 
 body to take you home ? " 
 
 " Oh, not at all ! " a cheerful voice answered. 
 *' I came to ask how the little boy is who 
 — who — had the mishap — who — fell into 
 the water." 
 
 " Oh, he ain't dead, miss," Karen muttered 
 sullenly, ** and I guess he don't mean to 
 gratify you by dying." 
 
 She was about to shut the door in her 
 visitor's face, when Ingomar, who had recog- 
 nized Ragna's voice, rose and stayed her 
 hand. 
 
The Rejected Olive-Branch. 33 
 
 *' Let her come in," he said; *'she is not 
 to blame for the accident." 
 
 Karen, who was accustomed to think In- 
 gomar infaUible, stepped aside and let the 
 young girl enter. 
 
 " Well, I *11 be blowed ! " was the greeting 
 Tobias gave her. He did not rise, far less 
 offer her his hand. 
 
 Ragna, though not expecting a cordial 
 reception, became a trifle embarrassed and 
 scarcely knew how to state her errand. Half 
 absently she handed a basket which she car- 
 ried on her arm to Ingomar, and walking 
 over to the little boy, who was still sitting 
 up in the alcove bed, she stooped down and 
 patted his cheek. 
 
 " Why, you poor thing, you Ve got fever," 
 she ejaculated, stroking his hair back from 
 his forehead. " I brought you some nice 
 things to eat and some toys for your little 
 sister, — Anna, isn't that her name?" 
 
 The boy only stared at her with his big 
 eyes, and did not answer. 
 
 ** I did n't think you were so ill, Tom," 
 Ragna went on, " or I should have brought 
 3 
 
34 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 you medicines too ; but I '11 send the doctor 
 to you if you like." 
 
 Tom shook his head. *' No, no doctor," 
 he said. 
 
 ** And won't you eat some smoked tongue 
 and some bread and butter? And I have got 
 some jam too." 
 
 All these delicacies would have been irre- 
 sistible to Tom at any other time; but just 
 then the pain in his head returned and di- 
 verted his thoughts from the temptation. He 
 fell back upon the sack which served for a 
 pillow, and groaned. 
 
 Tobias* who had only with difficulty con- 
 tained himself, now jumped up and advanced 
 two long strides toward the young girl. 
 
 "What do ye come here for?" he asked 
 savagely. 
 
 " I felt sorry for the little boy," answered 
 Ragna, meeting his glance fearlessly. 
 
 " You jest obleege me by not feelin' sorry 
 fur me nur none of mine," he demanded, v/ith 
 the same challenging mien ; " ye ought to feel 
 sorry rather that ye have got a father as will 
 kick a little chap as has n't done him no harm." 
 
The Rejected Olive-Branch. 35 
 
 " Tobias," cried Ingomar, stepping up to 
 the mate and grabbing him by the arm, 
 " shame on you ! That is not fair." 
 
 But Tobias had boiled so long inwardly 
 that he could not now be pacified. 
 
 " And was it fair," he yelled, " what Prc- 
 bensen did to Tom this morning? If it 
 had n't been for you, Tom would have been 
 carried out dead with the tide. For five 
 months I had worked and starved on board 
 his ship, — fur he 's too mean to provision 
 his ships as the law demands, — and when my 
 little chap is anxious-Hke to come out and 
 see his dad, he kicks him overboard as if he 
 had been a nasty cur, and never even stops 
 to see if he gets drownded. You call that 
 fair, do you? " 
 
 " No, I don't," Ingomar retorted quietly ; 
 *' but it was n't Ragna who did it. And I 
 call it cowardly to take revenge on a girl for 
 her father's doings." 
 
 "Cowardly! Cowardly, did you say ? Did 
 you call me cowardly?" 
 
 Beside himself with anger, Tobias raised 
 his clinched fist; but Ingomar stood erect 
 
36 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 and fearless, staring at him with unflinching 
 eyes. 
 
 " Yes," he repeated slowly, *' I call your 
 conduct cowardly. I always thought well of 
 you, Tobias, and I believed you to be a man, 
 with the courage of a man in your breast. 
 But when you hurt so cruelly one who has 
 come with pity in her heart to help you, I 
 cannot call you my friend." 
 
 *' I don't want her pity. I don't want the 
 pity of any of her tribe," shouted the mate, 
 threateningly. 
 
 " Well, then, tell her so quietly, but don't 
 insult her," the boy responded gallantly. 
 
 " Well, I did n't have the bringin' up of a 
 gentleman, and I don't pretend to be one. I 
 am a plain man, and I speak bluntly as I 
 feel." 
 
 The brunt of his wrath had spent itself, 
 and he was beginning to feel ashamed of his 
 violence. But just as his reason was about 
 to assert itself, he caught sight of his wife 
 stooping over Ragna's basket, and with a 
 face full of furtive delight, unpacking its 
 contents. There were a dozen or more slices 
 
The Rejected Olive-Branch. 2i7 
 
 of smoked tongue, at least twenty sandwiches, 
 several loaves of bread, and a small jar of 
 jam. 
 
 The poor starved woman, who had scarcely 
 eaten anything but salt fish and tough, oily 
 seal-flesh during her entire Hfe, had not the 
 courage to refuse such dainties. Her eyes 
 blazed with eager anxiety to get the things 
 put away before her husband should dis- 
 cover them. 
 
 But, unhappily, she was not quick enough. 
 Like an angry animal he pounced upon her, 
 wrenched the plate of sandwiches out of her 
 hands, and opening a window pitched it into 
 the street. Tongue, bread, cake, and jam 
 went the same way, one after the other, and 
 neither tears nor prayers were of any avail. 
 
 "Tobias, dear Tobias," the wife implored 
 him, *'we have nothin' in the house to cat, 
 and you fling good victuals into the street for 
 the dogs and the sea-gulls. Think of the 
 children, Tobias. They have had nothing 
 but herring and potatoes now for three 
 weeks." 
 
 " I ain't sech a poltroon as to curse a 
 
38 Against Heavy Odds, 
 
 man and then eat his bread," was Tobias's 
 answer. 
 
 He was holding the empty basket in his 
 hand, and with angry energy he hurled it 
 through the window into the black night. 
 
 Ingomar, who had stood speechless at 
 Ragna's side, watching the mate's Berserkir 
 rage, picked up his cap, and beckoning to 
 the young girl, approached the door. 
 
 Poor Karen, who had some faint hope yet 
 of saving the precious food from the dogs, 
 went to the threshold with them, and was 
 about to accompany them further, under the 
 guise of politeness, when her husband, sus- 
 pecting her design, rushed after her, seized 
 her by the arm, and dragged her back into 
 the room. 
 
 " Don't you dare to touch it ! " he cried. 
 ** I '11 show you I am master in my own 
 house ! " 
 
 A fierce wind was blowing outside, and it 
 was pitch-dark. Far away a luminous point 
 was visible, but it was quite insufficient to 
 dispel the darkness. Some rickety street- 
 signs creaked and screamed dismally in the 
 
The Rejected Olive-Branch. 39 
 
 wind, and now and then the spray from the 
 sea came hissing through the air and lashed 
 the window-panes. 
 
 Round about the island — only seven miles 
 in circumference — upon which the town was 
 built the great Arctic Ocean roared, and with a 
 perpetual boom of thunder charged in wrath- 
 ful onsets, as if to engulf it. These hoarse 
 howls of wrath filled the air through all the 
 winter months, except on rare occasions, 
 when the Sound between the island and the 
 mainland was frozen over. 
 
 ** Give me your hand, Ragna," said Ingo- 
 mar, *' or you will be blown out to sea." 
 
 "■ I was looking for my basket," shouted 
 Ragna, for the wind nearly drowned her 
 voice. 
 
 " You might as well look for that at the 
 North Pole." 
 
 She groped her way with one hand along 
 the wall of a fisherman's hut which turned 
 the gable to the street; and Ingomar, who 
 held her other hand, was guiding her through 
 the darkness. 
 
 " I stayed longer than I intended," Ragna 
 
40 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 remarked after a while ; " I hope they won't 
 be anxious about me at home." 
 
 " But I suppose they know where you went." 
 
 *' No, they don't. I got all the things 
 from the cook, and she thought I wanted to 
 eat them myself, or invite some girls to my 
 room." 
 
 They kept close in shelter of the houses ; 
 but whenever they came to a street-crossing, 
 where the wind had full sweep, they had to 
 cling to each other in order to keep their 
 footing, 
 
 *' I wish my father liked you better, Ingo- 
 mar," said Ragna, when once more they had 
 gained the shelter of a house-wall. 
 
 *' I don't like him any better than he likes 
 me," the boy was tempted to answer ; but he 
 checked his tongue, and asked instead, — 
 
 ** Why do you want him to like me 
 particularly?" 
 
 " Well — because then we could be friends 
 openly and not only on the sly." 
 
 Ingomar had nothing to answer to this, 
 and so they set their heads against the wind, 
 and struggled bravely onward. 
 
The Rejected Olive-B ranch. 41 
 
 ** Ragna," he said, suddenly facing her and 
 holding both her hands, ** I won't mind telling 
 you one thing, because you are my friend, 
 but you must promise me never to tell it 
 to anybody." 
 
 " Oh, you only trust me for that ! " cried 
 the girl enthusiastically, for she had a tre- 
 mendous relish for secrets. 
 
 " Well, some day I am going to be a great 
 man, and then it won't matter much what 
 your — what anybody thinks of me. I feel 
 it here — inside of me, Ragna," he went on, 
 with a ring of strong conviction ; " but I 
 never dared tell it even to father, because I 
 can't bear to be laughed at." 
 
 " Oh, but, Ingomar," exclaimed Ragna, 
 flushed and flattered by his confidence, " I 
 always thought you 'd be something great 1 " 
 
 "Did you really, Ragna?" 
 
 "Yes, I did." 
 
 " What made you think so? " 
 
 "Well, I don't know; I think it must be 
 your eyes. There is a look in them which 
 is — so good — and — and nice," she finished 
 confusedly. 
 
42 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 " Good and nice ? " he repeated with ob- 
 vious disappointment. 
 
 " Well, something that makes one believe 
 in you, — which makes it impossible not to 
 believe in you," she added eagerly. 
 
 She did not see how his face lighted 
 up with pleasure at that sweet assurance. 
 Something in his nature, finer than vanity, 
 responded to those sympathetic words with 
 joyous ardor. 
 
 He had led a lonely life, with his am- 
 bition, and had never known the delight of 
 being understood and appreciated. There- 
 fore Ragna's avowal sounded in his ears like 
 the most intoxicating music. And it seemed 
 to him almost miraculous that she had actu- 
 ally guessed his secret (which, for fear of 
 ridicule, he had so carefully hidden from all), 
 and suspected the greatness which he now 
 more than ever believed to be within his 
 reach. 
 
 The streets of Vardoe were at that time 
 crooked and hilly, and lighted at long inter- 
 vals by lamps swung on wires, which had a 
 way of being blown out when the wind was 
 
The Rejected Olive-Brancb. 43 
 
 high; and as the wind was generally high, 
 the lamps were generally out of repair when 
 they were most needed. 
 
 Ragna and Ingomar had just reached the 
 top of the hill that leads toward the so-called 
 West End, where the well-to-do citizens lived, 
 when they saw half-a-dozen lights flickering 
 to and fro across the street. Shouts, too, 
 were borne toward them on the blast; and 
 they concluded that some misfortune had 
 happened. It did not occur to them to 
 shout back, as they never dreamed that the 
 summons was intended for them. 
 
 With a vague relish of the excitement, 
 they started forward, eager to know the 
 cause of the disturbance. They had scarcely 
 advanced half a block, however, when Ragna 
 stopped and stared with a frightened face at 
 her companion. 
 
 " Ingomar," she exclaimed breathlessly, 
 ** they are hunting for me/ " 
 
 " What makes you think so? " 
 
 " I hear them shout my name." 
 
 " You had better shout back, then, to let 
 them know where you arc." 
 
44 Against Heavy Odds, 
 
 " Yes, but you must leave me first, In- 
 gomar. Father would n't like to see us 
 together." 
 
 *' Do you think I am a sneak?" cried the 
 boy, proudly ; " I won't run away from any- 
 body!" 
 
 Two men with torches and two more with 
 lanterns were now approaching; and Ingomar 
 shouted to them with all his might, Ragna 
 reluctantly joining. The foremost man in 
 the line, in whom they presently recognized 
 Prebensen, rushed forward the instant he 
 heard their voices. 
 
 ** Ho ! ho ! " he cried angrily, thrusting 
 his lantern into their faces, ^' this is you, 
 miss, is it? You have nearly frightened us 
 out of our wits." 
 
 Ragna flushed as she saw the men stand- 
 ing about her, but made no answer. 
 
 " This is a nice time for promenading, is n't 
 it?" her father continued sarcastically, curb- 
 ing his wrath; "and you, young man," he 
 went on, turning the full glare of the lantern 
 on Ingomar, — ** I '11 have a talk with you 
 later." 
 
The Rejected Olive-Brauch. 45 
 
 Ingomar had a stinging reply ready, but 
 out of regard for Ragna forbore to utter it. 
 He only lifted his cap silently, and vanished 
 in the darkness. 
 
CHAPTER Iir. 
 
 THE GREAT INVENTION. 
 
 In a large room which had once served 
 for a hay-loft Ingomar had his workshop. 
 The stable, which had once housed half-a- 
 dozen fine animals, was now inhabited by 
 one ancient and sedate nag whose fodder 
 was kept in a neighboring stall, and the re- 
 maining stalls were used by the young in- 
 ventor for storage of his models and other 
 treasures. For Ingomar was a boy to whom 
 everything was of interest. He was inde- 
 fatigably busy from morning till night. 
 
 He had been a trifle spoiled, perhaps, by 
 his father, who had perfect confidence in 
 him, and who found little time to occupy 
 himself with his son's education. 
 
 Ingomar's mother had died four years ago, 
 leaving a little daughter named Magda, who 
 was now nine years old. 
 
The Great Invention. 47 
 
 Four other sisters and brothers had died 
 in early infancy ; for it takes a very strong 
 child to survive one of the terrible Arctic 
 winters, when for two months the sun never 
 peeps above the horizon, and storm and 
 darkness hold sway in the heavens above, 
 and on the earth below. 
 
 The room above the stable, where Ingomar 
 spent his happiest hours, was more like an 
 inventor's laboratory than an artisan's work- 
 shop. There was, to be sure, a turning- 
 bench in a corner, and a variety of tools 
 were visible in a rack on the wall. But the 
 most conspicuous object was a small hearth, 
 like that of a forge, with bellows and a chim- 
 ney that pierced the roof. Ingomar had 
 partly built this himself, with the aid of a 
 mason's apprentice who was his friend. 
 
 Suspended under the roof and on shelves 
 about the walls were stuffed sea-birds of 
 many kinds, and seals, weasels, martens, and 
 foxes. For Ingomar's first enthusiasm, when 
 he was four years younger, had been tax- 
 idermy, and he had acquired considerable 
 skill in this art, and earned some money by 
 
48 Against Heavy Odds, 
 
 the sale of his finest specimens to English 
 and American tourists. In order to guard 
 against fire he had covered the floor with a 
 layer of crushed sea-shells, and the walls 
 with asbestos paper. 
 
 Here in this delightful room, which was all 
 his own, Ingomar was seated one morning, 
 about a month after his visit to Tobias Trul- 
 son. With one hand he was slowly working 
 the bellows, while in the other he held a 
 book on chemistry, in which he was eagerly 
 reading. A wooden model of a swivel-gun, 
 about a foot long, was standing on a table 
 near the window, illumined by two whale-oil 
 lamps which were attached to the wall. 
 
 The boy's face, as he turned it toward the 
 light, was blackened with soot and flushed 
 with excitement. His entire person, from 
 the chin down, was covered with a leathern 
 apron, such as smiths wear. 
 
 With an exclamation of impatience he 
 flung down the book and began to walk up 
 and down the floor. The light of the two 
 lamps did not radiate much beyond the 
 forge and the table, and all the rest of the 
 
The Great Invention. 49 
 
 room was in twilight; for the dark season 
 had now begun, and all over the town the 
 window-shades were pulled down and the 
 yellow flames of the candles glimmered 
 all day long through the chinks of the 
 shutters. 
 
 It was bitter cold without, and the wind 
 swept fiercely around the corners of the 
 house. The steady humming of the stove 
 sometimes rose to a roar, and sometimes 
 ceased suddenly when the wind dashed down 
 the chimney and flung a fiery tongue from 
 the draught-hole out into the room. 
 
 The ice on the window-panes was almost 
 thick enough to make the shades super- 
 fluous, and the cotton batting which had 
 been stuffed into the chinks, and the ser- 
 pentine sand-bags which guarded against 
 draughts, were covered with half an inch of 
 hoar-frost. 
 
 Ingomar stopped abruptly in his march, 
 and stared with kindling eyes at his gun 
 model. " I have it ! " he cried joyously, and 
 made a leap across the floor. " A bomb is 
 the thing ! Hurrah for the bomb ! '* 
 
50 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 He was so absorbed that he failed to hear 
 the creaking of the stairs and the sound of 
 heavy footsteps. But he could not fail to 
 hear the thump on the door, which nearly 
 shook it out of its frame; nor fail to see 
 the big, brawny figure in oil-clothes which 
 presently filled the doorway. 
 
 "Who's there?" cried Ingomar, anything 
 but happy to be disturbed. 
 
 " It 's me," answered a voice out of the 
 dusk. 
 
 "Well, what do you want, Tobias?" asked 
 Ingomar, instantly recognizing the voice. 
 
 The broad, weather-beaten figure lum- 
 bered forward, and pulling off a huge mitten, 
 stretched out a dark-brown, horny paw. 
 
 " Let us be friends, lad," he said, when 
 Ingomar hesitated to grasp his hand. " I 
 can't get along without you; you can't get 
 along without me." 
 
 "Don't be so sure of that, Tobias," the 
 boy answered ; " if you are so violent as you 
 were the other night, I don't know but I 
 should be better off without you." 
 
 " Don't say that, lad, don't say it ! " 
 
77?^ Great Invention. 51 
 
 pleaded the mate. " I reckon I was pretty- 
 nasty, and I feel mighty mean about it now. 
 But you and me — we was sorter growed 
 up together — though it was you as did the 
 growing ; but I have been so miserable sence 
 you turned your back on me that I '11 do 
 anything you like, only so as we be friends 
 as we was afore." 
 
 Ingomar looked up into the sailor's big, 
 coppery face, and its deeply troubled look 
 touched him. 
 
 " All right, Tobias ! " he said, now pressing 
 his hand, which felt like a piece of tanned 
 leather; '*we'll let bygones be bygones." 
 
 " Thankee, lad, thankee ! It do make a 
 new man of me to see ye brightenin' up a 
 bit." 
 
 " Sit down, Tobias ; you can talk while I 
 work. I have a little experiment here which 
 I can't very well drop." 
 
 *' Let 's have a look at it." 
 
 '' Mind you, mum 's the word, Tobias." 
 
 " Don't you be afeard of me, sonny; I ain't 
 the blabbin' kind." 
 
 The boy pulled a small harpoon out of the 
 
52 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 smouldering fire on the hearth, and in his 
 eagerness thrust it up under the mate's nose. 
 Tobias started back, but recovered himself 
 and began to inspect the weapon. 
 
 " That is n't made right," said he. 
 
 "Just so," ejaculated Ingomar; "that's 
 just the point." 
 
 "Why have you made it hollow?" 
 
 " Listen to me, Tobias, You know you 
 said a third of the whales caught, on an 
 average, went to the bottom, and that this 
 third was apt to make the difference between 
 profit and loss. Now, this harpoon is made 
 hollow, because it is to contain a bomb, 
 which, when it explodes, will generate gas; 
 and this gas will buoy the whale up and 
 prevent him from sinking." 
 
 "But who's to explode the bomb? Ye 
 can't get inside the whale with a fuse or 
 anything of that kind." 
 
 " The whale himself is to explode it. The 
 rope which is attached to the harpoon is to 
 be connected with a wire running through 
 the hollow shaft, and the first pull the whale 
 gives will burst the bomb and fill his insides 
 
The Great Invention. 53 
 
 with a gas which will make his huge, lumber- 
 ing carcass ten per cent lighter." 
 
 The young inventor, carried along by his 
 ideas, gazed in joyous excitement at his 
 friend, challenging him with his eager eyes 
 to find more objections if he could. The 
 mate in the mean while scratched his head 
 meditatively, and looked, half embarrassed, 
 about the walls. 
 
 " Now, supposin' that is all right," he be- 
 gan at last, " who is to fire yer light har- 
 poon, which, mind ye, is hollow, so far into 
 the whale's body that it '11 stick? No human 
 critter is strong enough for that." 
 
 " This ! " cried Ingomar, proudly, jumping 
 up and putting his hand on his model of the 
 swivel-gun. " I put the harpoon into the 
 muzzle of the cannon and shoot it out with 
 gunpowder." 
 
 " Wal, wal, wal ! " exclaimed Tobias, in 
 rapt astonishment. *' If ye be n't the smart- 
 est lad I ever clapped eyes on ! " 
 
 He began to examine the gun with pro- 
 found interest, while Ingomar took it apart 
 and explained the working of each detail. 
 
54 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 There was one great hitch yet, he remarked, 
 and that was to find the proper kind of gas, 
 and the proper way of developing it. But 
 he had no doubt but that by diligent ex- 
 perimenting he would succeed in finding 
 precisely what he needed. 
 
 He had sold half his collection of stuffed 
 birds and even his precious blue fox, and 
 bought chemicals with the proceeds. An- 
 other month of study would, he hoped, per- 
 fect his invention; and then he would have 
 a model made in steel, and send to Christi- 
 ania to get his patent and make his fortune. 
 For no whaler could henceforth afford to go 
 to sea without Vang's Patent Harpoon Gun, 
 and thus the fortunes of the house of Vang 
 would rise Phoenix-like from its ashes, and 
 the whole Finmark district would flourish as 
 never before. 
 
 This was the dream which the enthusiastic 
 boy had nursed in his solitude; and as he 
 now related it to his friend, his eyes beamed 
 with zeal and delight, and his voice shook 
 with emotion. Tobias, though he was natu- 
 rally doubtful about the success of so daring 
 
The Great Invention. 55 
 
 a plan, had not quite the heart to offer fur- 
 ther objections. He only scratched his head 
 meditatively as before. 
 
 After having once more examined the gun, 
 he rose to take his leave. 
 
 " By the way, how 's little Tom ? " inquired 
 Ingomar. ** I hope he 's better." 
 
 " Oh, he 's tolerably middlin'. He 's been 
 havin' pneumonia, but I reckon he 's goin' to 
 pull through, if he only had enough to eat, 
 poor chap ! " 
 
 " Has n't he enough to eat? " 
 
 Tobias twirled his cap thoughtfully; then 
 looking up with some embarrassment, said: 
 ** Why, Master Ingomar, there ain't anybody 
 down in our part of town as has enough 
 to eat. Some days, when we can put to sea 
 and catch some fish or kill a seal, we manage 
 to keep soul and body together; but when 
 the weather is too rough, as it generally is at 
 this season, we have to starve." 
 
 ** But can't you get credit at Prebensen*s?** 
 
 " No ; Prebensen won't give credit any 
 more unless a man 's got something to mort- 
 gage. And pretty much all the town is 
 
56 Against Heavy Odds. * 
 
 mortgaged to him by this time — down our 
 way/' 
 
 *' Come along with me, Tobias; though we 
 have n't much ourselves, nowadays, I '11 get 
 you something. The trouble is, every one 
 who is refused at Prebensen's comes to us ; 
 and father is too soft-hearted to send any- 
 body away empty-handed." 
 
 They descended the stairs together, and 
 passed through the stable into the court- 
 yard. The wind had now gone down; the 
 sky was glittering with innumerable stars, 
 and the aurora borealis flashed its pink and 
 yellow sheets of light from the horizon 
 toward the zenith. 
 
 Though it was but a little after noon, not 
 a ray of sunlight was anywhere visible ; but 
 for all that, there was a dazzling splendor in 
 the scene which the sun could scarcely have 
 rivalled. Each separate star twinkled and 
 shone with an intenser brilliancy than it 
 ever attains in our temperate zone ; and the 
 Milky Way, with its myriad luminous hosts, 
 poured down upon the earth a flood of 
 radiance. 
 
The Great Invention. 57 
 
 Ingomar and his friend entered by the 
 back door a rather shabby store, pervaded 
 with the odor of tar and salt fish. Big 
 barrels filled with salt mackerel and herring 
 stood before the counter; coils of rope lay 
 under the shelves; and green, brown, and 
 yellow boxes were stowed away in little 
 square compartments, exhibiting a sample 
 nail, or screw, or fish-hook. 
 
 It was an unpretentious country-store, 
 where you might without impropriety ask 
 for anything from a suit of oil-clothes to a 
 bottle of medicine. 
 
 There was a shrill little bell over the door, 
 which announced each customer that entered 
 or departed, and kept up a needless racket 
 after the door was closed. 
 
 "Father," cried Ingomar to an elderly 
 man with a kindly, careworn face, who stood 
 writing at a desk, " Tobias says his children 
 have nothing to eat. Have n't we got some- 
 thing to give him? " 
 
 ** My dear boy," answered his father, look- 
 ing up from his writing, " we shall soon be 
 no better off than Tobias. I have given 
 
58 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 away the better part of my stock because 
 the distress of the people moved me. Now 
 I can get credit no more myself, and then 
 there 's an end of everything." 
 
 The boy gazed at the mournful face of 
 his father, and his grief cut him to the heart. 
 Why should he allow him to be sad when he 
 had it in his power to cheer him? He had 
 always looked up to him, believing him to 
 be the noblest of men. 
 
 " Father," he said, stepping up to the 
 older man and putting his hand affection- 
 ately on his shoulder, " what would you say 
 if I told you that some day you would again 
 be the richest man in Vardoe ? " 
 
 Mr, Vang, feeling the enthusiasm which 
 trembled in his voice, gave a start of sur- 
 prise, but in the next moment smiled sadly 
 and answered, — 
 
 " I should say, my dear, that you had 
 been dreaming. I have been routed in 
 the fight, and the hard part of it is that I 
 have been routed by foul means which I 
 would never condescend to use in return. A 
 scoundrel has that advantage over an hon- 
 
The Great Invention. 59 
 
 est man, that he can fight him with weap- 
 ons which his enemy would scorn to make 
 use of." 
 
 "But you only wait, father," ejaculated 
 the boy, with blazing eyes, " and we 'II fight 
 him with a weapon which he won't have the 
 wit to make use of." 
 
 " What kind of a weapon is that? " 
 
 " A swivel-gun." 
 
 ** My dear boy ! I hope you are joking." 
 
 '' Not at all. It is a new kind of harpoon 
 gun I have invented." 
 
 " But, Ingomar, my son," cried Mr. Vang, 
 with alarm in his face, ** you surely are not 
 thinking of doing him bodily harm?" 
 
 *' Bodily harm ! No, indeed ! " 
 
 Ingomar flung his head back and burst 
 into a ringing peal of laughter. "Why, 
 father," he shouted, " you did n't ima- 
 gine I wanted to harpoon Prebensen, did 
 you?" 
 
 " Well, what else was I to suppose? " 
 
 The son had to have his laugh out; and 
 Tobias, as soon as he saw the point, had to 
 join him. 
 
6o Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 " I would n't mind myself havin' a crack at 
 him," said the mate, '' and I should n't have 
 half as much on my conscience as he has. 
 How many a ship he has sent to sea know- 
 ing her to be nothin' but a floatin' coffin ! 
 And when the news came that she had gone 
 down, the widders put on weeds and the 
 children cried for bread, and he let 'em 
 starve, and pocketed ten or twenty thousand 
 dollars* insurance for killin' them. It don't 
 seem somehow right to be livin' quietly in 
 a world where such things do happen. 
 There 's his brig, the * Walrus,' a rickety old 
 consarn that had been condemned ; but he 
 manages somehow to get certificates of sea- 
 worthiness, and sends her with whalebone 
 and oil to Hull." 
 
 Mr. Vang, without making any reply, 
 beckoned the mate aside, put up a loaf of 
 bread and other provisions in a package, and 
 bade him good-by. 
 
 " Do you know, Ingomar," he said to his 
 son as he returned to his desk, " I have 
 sometimes thought it my duty to warn 
 Prebensen." 
 
The Great Invention, 6i 
 
 ** I would n't do anything of the sort ! " 
 ejaculated Ingomar, hotly. 
 
 " I am not so sure of that," his father 
 answered thoughtfully. " He does not come 
 in contact with the people as I do, and he 
 does not know how they feel toward him." 
 
 " Then let him take the consequences of 
 his own misdoings." 
 
 " If he were the only one who would suffer, 
 perhaps that might not be out of the way; 
 but the fact is, the whole town suffers. The 
 welfare of all is in the hands of that one 
 wretched man." 
 
 They walked into the dining-room and sat 
 down to lunch. When they had finished 
 eating, Ingomar took his skates and a pitch 
 torch, ready for lighting, and persuaded his 
 father to go with him down on the ice. The 
 old gentleman, who loved nothing better 
 than his son's society, was readily coaxed 
 to lock up the store ; and wrapped from 
 head to foot in fur-lined overcoats, they 
 started out together. 
 
 The moon had now risen, and showed its 
 calm, bright face above the eastern horizon. 
 
62 Against Heavy Odds, 
 
 Though the air was still, a kind of icy 
 breath rose from the ground with a tomb- 
 like chill in it which penetrated all garments. 
 Father and son walked rapidly through the 
 quiet streets down toward the frozen harbor, 
 whence they heard snatches of song and 
 shouts of merriment. On account of the 
 tides and currents it was not often that the 
 Sound froze hard enough for skating, and 
 young people would not allow such an op- 
 portunity for enjoyment to escape them. 
 
 Toward the north the aurora borealis was 
 blazing and shooting forth long, fan-like 
 beams which swept across the sky. In this 
 magic illumination the ice lay outspread like 
 a huge steel-blue mirror, reflecting the ruddy 
 sheen of torches and the swiftly moving fig- 
 ures of boys and girls. 
 
 It was a very pretty sight, and Ingomar s 
 heart gave a bound of delight. With a shout 
 he leaped down the steps of the pier, flung 
 off his overcoat, fastened his skates on his 
 feet, lighted his torch, and darted out upon 
 the glittering surface. 
 
 His father remained standing on the pier, 
 
The Great Invention, 63 
 
 watching with admiration his dexterous turns 
 and daring gyrations. Suddenly, like a flash, 
 while he was going at full speed, he flung 
 himself about and darted away backward in 
 undulating lines, swinging his torch about his 
 head, and challenging every boy on the ice 
 to race with him. 
 
 He found presently that some one had 
 accepted his challenge; but it was not a 
 boy, — it was Ragna Prebensen. 
 
 She wore a blue hood edged with swan's- 
 down, and a tight-fitting cloak of the same 
 color, lined with ermine. 
 
 " Ingomar," she said breathlessly, stretch- 
 ing out her hand to him, " why do you run 
 away from me ? " 
 
 *• I thought we were racing," he answered. 
 
 ** You did n't think anything of the sort," 
 she replied, with an injured air. 
 
 '* Well, you know you and I are not to 
 talk to each other," he remarked, after a 
 pause. 
 
 " You need n't talk if you don't want to ; 
 but we are going to have a torchlight quad- 
 rille on skates. Will you dance with me? " 
 
64 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 Ingomar was greatly tempted to accept the 
 invitation given so frankly and with such 
 sincerity. 
 
 "But your father will not like it," he urged 
 dubiously. 
 
 " Leave that to me ; I '11 make it up with 
 my father." 
 
 " All right, then ; here I am." 
 
 He seized her hand, fell quickly into step 
 with her, and darting rhythmically to the 
 right and to the left, carried her along at 
 such speed that the ice looked like a series 
 of white and blue lines which came rushing 
 madly toward them. 
 
 " Hurrah, this is life ! " cried Ingomar, 
 whirling his torch in the air so that the 
 sparks flew like fiery snakes about them. 
 
 " Take care, you '11 singe my hood ! " she 
 cried. 
 
 ** Oh, never mind the hood ! " 
 
 They came to a standstill in the middle of 
 the Sound, where about thirty or forty young 
 people stood ready to begin the dance. The 
 boys were dressed in short, fur-trimmed jack- 
 ets and fur caps, and carried lighted torches. 
 
The Great Invention. 6$ 
 
 " Hurrah, there is Ingomar ! " cried a 
 chorus of voices. " You lead, Ingomar, with 
 Ragna Prebensen." 
 
 " All right ! " said Ingomar. " Take your 
 places ! and you, girls, will commence the 
 song when I raise my torch like this." 
 
 In five minutes more the boys and girls 
 were arranged in two long lines on the ice, 
 and at a signal from Ingomar the girls began 
 to sing. It was the dance known in Norway 
 as the Frangaise, in which any number of 
 couples may participate. It resembles in its 
 figures the Lancers, or an enlarged quadrille, 
 in which there are many couples, instead of 
 one, on each side of the square. 
 
 The older people, who stood on the piers 
 or promenaded along the shore, enjoyed the 
 beautiful sight from a distance. The flicker- 
 ing torches, with their long, trembling reflec- 
 tions, the variegated lines of the dancers 
 skating forward and backward to the rhythm 
 of the song, the steely flash of the skates, 
 the vast glittering surface of the ice, and the 
 great dark-blue dome of the sky united into 
 a picture to be remembered. 
 5 
 
66 Against Heavy Odds, 
 
 Mr. Vang, after having watched with pride 
 his son's skill as a skater, began to walk 
 up and down on the pier, in order to keep 
 his blood in motion. He had just reached 
 the sea-booths from which the pier projected, 
 when by chance he found himself face to face 
 with Consul Prebensen. His first impulse 
 was to pass him by without appearing to 
 observe him; but Tobias's story about the 
 " Walrus," and many similar stories which he 
 had heard from other quarters, inclined him 
 rather to seek an interview with his enemy. 
 
 " Good-day, Consul," he said, lifting his 
 cap. 
 
 " Good-day, Mr. Vang ! " the consul re- 
 plied, with an air of condescension. " I 
 hope you are well, sir," he added, holding 
 out two fingers, which Mr. Vang found it 
 prudent to press. 
 
 They talked for a few minutes about indif- 
 ferent things ; and when once the ice was 
 broken, Vang steered skilfully toward the 
 subject which he had at heart. 
 
 *• I hope you won't take it ill. Consul," he 
 said, " but as an older man, who had the 
 
The Great Invention. 67 
 
 honor of being your first employer, I may 
 perhaps be permitted to speak to you 
 frankly." 
 
 Prebensen growled something in return 
 which might be taken either for permission 
 or refusal. 
 
 " You do wTong, Consul," Vang continued 
 warmly, '^ in treating your sailors so harshly. 
 You get your wealth out of their labor. I 
 think you would find it for your own profit 
 to extend their credit in bad years like the 
 present. A man of your wealth and position 
 can't afford to let men starve at his door." 
 
 " Mr. Vang," Prebensen replied, staring at 
 his former employer with a pinched, ugly 
 look, "■ I shall be obliged if you '11 leave me 
 to manage my business for myself. I pay 
 my people what I agree to pay them. They 
 don't work for me for nothing. They are at 
 liberty to go elsewhere, if they can secure 
 better terms." 
 
 " Well, what does that liberty amount to, 
 Mr. Prebensen? You are now the only man 
 here who owns ships and is rich enough to 
 fit out boat-guilds for the fisheries. The 
 
68 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 people are too poor to go elsewhere, and you 
 practically make your own terms." 
 
 " I don't do business on sentimental prin- 
 ciples," the consul made haste to answer. 
 " You tVied that, and we all see the result. 
 I am a practical man, and regard only 
 business principles." 
 
 " But remember, Mr. Prebensen," Vang 
 rejoined, ignoring the offensive allusion, 
 " they are God's creatures ; they are human 
 beings like you and me." 
 
 " Indeed ! Well, they may be like you, 
 but they are not like me ! " snarled the 
 consul. 
 
 " Take care, Consul, take care ! " cried 
 Vang, earnestly. ** I have given you warning. 
 If you disregard it, you will live to rue it. 
 These poor people whom you despise are, if 
 they unite, a hundred times stronger than 
 you. They are now at your mercy, but the 
 day may come when you will be at their 
 mercy." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 A THORNY PATH. 
 
 An inventor's path is not strewn with 
 roses. Ingomar discovered, to his chagrin, 
 that without money he would never be able 
 to test the worth of his invention. He had, 
 after months of steady experimenting, found 
 the substances he needed for the generation 
 of gas in his bomb, and felt confident that 
 his gun would prove a success. 
 
 But in order to prove this he would have 
 to have his model reproduced in steel, which 
 would cost upward of two hundred dollars. 
 Such a sum his father had not at his dis- 
 posal; and however much he might strain 
 his credit, he would scarcely be able to raise 
 it. It even seemed to Ingomar, in moments 
 of bitterness, that his father did not fully 
 believe in his invention, but only humored 
 him for fear of hurting his feelings. 
 
7o Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 There was not another soul in whom the 
 poor boy dared confide; and the longer he 
 brooded over his disappointment the sadder 
 he grew. 
 
 One morning in June, when there was a 
 feeling of spring in the air, he was roaming 
 over the rocks, gun in hand, pondering on 
 the subject which now never left his mind. 
 The wary seals raised their round heads out 
 of the water and gazed at him, or lay sun- 
 ning themselves on the skerries, ready to 
 plump into the sea if he should make any 
 suspicious motion. But the young hunter 
 strode away, with his head bent, without 
 heeding them. 
 
 He had walked along for a couple of miles 
 and was far outside the town, when he 
 thought he heard his name called. He 
 stopped, looked about him, but saw nothing 
 except the black rocks, with patches of 
 white and blue and yellow wild-flowers 
 scattered between. 
 
 " Ingomar ! " a voice called again, and it 
 seemed to him that it was a girl's voice. He 
 answered with a loud halloo. Presently, 
 
A Thorny Path, 71 
 
 after another search, he discovered a yellow 
 head which disentangled itself from a patch 
 of yellow daffodils. 
 
 The sunlight was so dazzlingly bright that 
 his eyes ached ; and the sea, which broke 
 with gentle murmurs at his feet, was like a 
 huge burnished shield which reflected and 
 intensified the light. 
 
 **Wait a moment! I want to see you," 
 the yellow head called out from among the 
 daffodils. 
 
 Ingomar paused and stood leaning on his 
 gun. He knew well enough that the voice 
 was Ragna's, but he yet feigned a little sur- 
 prise at seeing her in such an out-of-the-way 
 place. She was flushed and out of breath; 
 and her loose hair was blown all over her 
 face, giving her a resemblance to an obsti- 
 nate little Shetland pony that is aware of its 
 attractiveness and accustomed to have its 
 own way. 
 
 " Well, you are the provokingest boy I 
 ever knew," said Ragna, putting down a 
 basket of flowers which she carried on her 
 arm and seating herself on a big bowlder. 
 
72 Against Heavy Odds, 
 
 ''I? How so? " queried Ingomar. 
 
 " Well, I have screamed till I am as hoarse 
 as a crow. You must have heard me for the 
 last fifteen minutes." 
 
 *' You are mistaken. I answered you the 
 moment I heard you." 
 
 " Well, we won't quarrel about it. But 
 say, Ingomar, when are you going to be a 
 great man? You remember you told me. I 
 have been waiting for it daily, and I believe 
 that is what makes me so out of breath," 
 she added, coughing, and wiping her fore- 
 head with her handkerchief. 
 
 She glanced up at him, her eyes dancing 
 with mischief. 
 
 ** Ragna, you always were a great tease," 
 he said with a sad smile ; *' but I beg of you, 
 don't tease me on that subject." 
 
 ''Why not?" 
 
 ** Because I am very sensitive. You don't 
 want to hurt me, do you?" 
 
 She grew suddenly serious, and a warm 
 sympathy replaced the mischief in her eyes. 
 "Look here, Ingomar," she said, "you have 
 got some trouble. Tell me all about it." 
 
A Thorny Path. 73 
 
 "■ I can't, Ragna. You would n't under- 
 stand it." 
 
 "Understand it! Well, I like that! "she 
 cried defiantly. '' Now you Ve got to tell 
 me. You might just as well give up at 
 once, for you won't have peace until you 
 do." 
 
 He forgot for the moment whose daughter 
 she was, and after some coaxing told her 
 his secret. It seemed very sweet to him, 
 after his long, solitary brooding, to pour 
 the tale of his struggles and disappoint- 
 ments into a sympathetic ear. The lively 
 interest which she betrayed in his ambition, 
 and her absolute confidence in his genius 
 were like balm to his wounded spirit. 
 
 " Ingomar," cried Ragna, when he had 
 finished his story, " I '11 tell you what to do. 
 You go to my father, and tell him what you 
 have told me. He will lend you the two 
 hundred dollars to make your model." 
 
 Ingomar gave an incredulous laugh and 
 looked out over the sea. He did not want 
 Prebensen's daughter to see the expression 
 of his face. She had no need of seeing it, 
 
74 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 however, for she divined how her proposition 
 would strike him. 
 
 " You don't know father," she continued 
 eagerly. " He 's a little gruff sometimes, 
 and you would be, too, if you had so many 
 bad people to try you as father has. But 
 I can coax him to do anything I want him 
 to do." 
 
 *'That may be, but I don't want you to 
 coax him to do anything for me," said 
 Ingomar, proudly. 
 
 She rose abruptly, and with a toss of her 
 head flung back her hair from her forehead. 
 Why was he so foolishly proud and stub- 
 born? Why did he make it so difficult for 
 her to help him? She was disposed to re- 
 sent the rebuff he had given her ; but some- 
 how, as she caught a glimpse of his handsome, 
 mournful face, she could not find it in her 
 heart to be angry with him. 
 
 ** Now don't be rash, Ingomar," she 
 begged, turning toward him a face full of 
 sympathy and earnest pleading ; " do allow 
 me to help you. You know this is your 
 only chance. I believe in you, and I '11 
 
A Thorny Path. 75 
 
 make father believe in, you too. I '11 make 
 him lend you the money, and help you to 
 show the world what there is in you." 
 
 She sat down at his side on the rock and 
 began coaxing him anew, using all her in- 
 genuity and womanly arts to chase away his 
 scruples ; and the end of it was that he 
 promised to go that very afternoon to the 
 consul, explain to him his invention, and ask 
 his* aid. 
 
 Having accomplished this, Ragna picked 
 up her basket, flung her hat on the back of 
 her head, and with a shout ran down the 
 hillside. He saw her presently emerge from 
 among the rocks and push a wherry, which 
 she had pulled up on the beach, into the 
 sea as well as any man. 
 
 " She is n't a bad sailor, that girl ! " he 
 said to himself, as he turned his face 
 homeward. 
 
 He had to battle with himself long and 
 earnestly before he could make up his mind 
 to seek an interview with Mr. Prebensen. If 
 it had not been for his promise to Ragna, he 
 would never have trodden the difficult path 
 
^6 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 up to the consul's big house. His wooden 
 model he carried in a neat box which he had 
 made for it, and the careful way in which he 
 handled it showed how precious it was to 
 him. 
 
 Three o'clock in the afternoon was the 
 hour which Ragna had fixed for the inter- 
 view, for then her father would have finished 
 his after-dinner nap and lighted his cigar; 
 and she knew from experience that that was 
 the time when he was most likely to be ami- 
 able. In spite of these precautions, however, 
 Ingomar had his misgivings. As he walked 
 with slow, reluctant steps up the street, the 
 blood kept throbbing in his temples, and 
 he muttered to himself, " I wish I had n't 
 promised." 
 
 The houses in the shadow of which he 
 was walking were small, one and two story 
 wooden structures, with little garden-plots 
 in front of them, in which geraniums and 
 primroses were blooming. 
 
 The street was steep and the pavement 
 uneven. It was a shabby little town, cer- 
 tainly, steeped in whale-oil and the odor of 
 
A Thorny Path, yj 
 
 fish. But for all that, there was in this 
 glorious spring weather a splendor of earth 
 and sea and sky which made it almost beau- 
 tiful. The sun, which now shone without 
 interruption day and night, bathed the mean 
 little houses in a strange rosy glow, which 
 one would scarcely expect to see out of 
 fairy-land. 
 
 It was odd, indeed; but this magical illu- 
 mination was not without a certain influence 
 upon Ingomar, as he climbed the steep hill, 
 on the crest of which Prebensen's stately 
 mansion was situated. 
 
 He felt himself like the prince in the fairy 
 tale who had started out in search of ad- 
 ventures. Here under his arm he held the 
 wonderful box which somehow was to make 
 his fortune, and up there on the hill-top 
 was the ogre's castle which he must invade. 
 There was a princess in the case too ; but 
 she did not fit into the fairy tale, for she was 
 fond of the ogre, and not at all inclined to 
 chop his head off. 
 
 It was these fantastic thoughts which occu- 
 pied the young inventor as he plodded along 
 
78 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 toward the ordeal which was in store for him. 
 He rehearsed in his mind what he would say 
 to the consul; and imagined the questions 
 that would be put to him, and the answers 
 he would return. He was in the midst of 
 these speculations, when he suddenly ran 
 against an invisible barrier which scraped 
 his nose and knocked his hat off. 
 
 A burst of suppressed laughter and a 
 scurry of feet behind one of the houses told 
 him that the little street Arabs had played 
 a trick on him. A thin wire had been strung 
 across the street from one wall to another, 
 at about the proper height for knocking off 
 the hats of the passers-by. 
 
 Ingomar shook his fist laughingly at a 
 little rascal whom he saw peeping forth be- 
 hind the corner; but made no attempt to 
 catch him. He was young enough to re- 
 member the time in his own life when such 
 tricks afforded him an exquisite pleasure. 
 He picked up his hat, and proceeded quietly 
 on his way. With a loudly beating heart he 
 entered Prebensen's store, and asked one of 
 the clerks if he might see the consul. He 
 
A Thorny Path. 79 
 
 half expected to be refused, and was agree- 
 ably surprised when the clerk said that the 
 chief would see him. 
 
 He found the merchant seated in a swivel- 
 chair, smoking a cigar, while he sorted a 
 number of bills which lay on the desk before 
 him. He gave his visitor a careless nod over 
 his shoulder, but went on with his work for 
 fully ten minutes, without taking any notice 
 of him. Ingomar, who was yet standing in 
 the middle of the floor, was on the point of 
 beating a retreat, when the consul suddenly 
 wheeled about in his chair and faced him. 
 
 *' Well, young man, what can I do for 
 you ? " he asked abruptly. 
 
 Ingomar had a good mind to answer in 
 the same tone that he could do nothing for 
 him ; but his promise to Ragna, and the great 
 interest he had at stake restrained him. 
 
 " I have made an invention, Mr. Consul," 
 he said, " but I cannot test its worth until 
 I can have my model reproduced in steel. 
 This would cost upward of two hundred 
 dollars, and I have come to you to ask you if 
 you would lend me the money, and take your 
 
8o Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 security in the patent which I shall procure, 
 as soon as I have made my test." 
 
 Prebensen pinched his small, shrewd eyes 
 together, and looked at the youth as a fox 
 looks at a chicken of which he expects to 
 make a meal. What a contrast they pre- 
 sented, — the one so tall and handsome, with 
 a face so guileless and open and eyes so 
 frank and blue ; the other small and wizened, 
 with slyness, deceit, and greed stamped upon 
 his features ! It was impossible to imagine 
 a noble emotion in a man with a face like 
 that. 
 
 Prebensen did not immediately reply, when 
 Ingomar had explained his errand. He 
 knew the whole story from Ragna, who had 
 labored with him for a full hour to extort 
 from him a promise to help the young in- 
 ventor; but he enjoyed seeing Vang's son 
 stand before him as a petitioner, and he 
 could riot deny himself the pleasure of 
 humiliating him by making him feel his 
 power. 
 
 " H'm ! " he muttered at last. " You are 
 a sort of — genius, I suppose. Is that it? " 
 
IL 
 
A Thorny Path. 8i 
 
 " I have n't said that, Mr. Consul," rcpHcd 
 Ingomar, blushing. ** I have only said I 
 have made an invention." 
 
 " Well, well, it amounts to the same thing, 
 I fancy. If you had n't been a genius, you 
 vi^ould n't have made the invention, — that is, 
 of course, if your invention amounts to any- 
 thing." 
 
 ** I think it does, sir. In fact, I am sure it 
 does." 
 
 " Exactly, there we have it. It amounts 
 to the same thing. But before investing in 
 your genius, I shall have to know more 
 about it. Will you please explain to me 
 the character of your invention? I am not 
 a man to buy the cat in the bag, you 
 know." 
 
 Ingomar with alacrity opened his box and 
 placed the swivel-gun on the desk. It was 
 very skilfully made, finished with exquisite 
 neatness, and ornamented with carvings in 
 low relief representing scenes from the life 
 of the whaler. 
 
 '* Did you make this? " queried the consul, 
 evidently admiring the workmanship. 
 6 
 
82 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 '* Yes, sir, I made it." 
 
 *' And now let us hear how it works." 
 
 The inventor took the gun and unscrewed 
 it into four separate pieces. His features 
 lighted up with happy pride as he began to 
 explain the principle of construction; and 
 the animation of his features, as he told of 
 his various experiments and failures, was 
 touching. If Prebensen had possessed a 
 particle of sentiment, he would have been 
 moved by the boy's enthusiasm ; but Pre- 
 bensen's one thought was not of the boy, 
 but of himself 
 
 He was determined to possess himself of 
 the secret, and, in case it was worth any- 
 thing, to deprive the inventor of the fruits 
 of his labor. He listened with an almost 
 anxious intentness, and made Ingomar re- 
 peat each difficult statement, until he felt 
 sure he understood it. 
 
 He saw at a glance that such a gun, if it 
 accomplished what Ingomar claimed, would 
 revolutionize the whaling business. It would 
 enable the ships to hunt right at the coast 
 for the leaner Finmark whale, instead of 
 
A Thorny Path. 83 
 
 going on long and dangerous voyages after 
 the larger and fatter Greenland whale. It 
 would nearly double the catch, and would 
 give a reasonable guarantee of profits, while 
 greatly lessening the expense. He saw al- 
 ready in spirit the wealth and power it would 
 bring him if once it were his; and to make 
 sure that nothing should escape him of the 
 details, he took out his notebook and jotted 
 down some memoranda. 
 
 While Ingomar was glowing with delight 
 at the interest the consul took in his inven- 
 tion, and already confident of receiving the 
 loan, he was suddenly struck by the peculiar 
 expression in Prebensen's face. He had 
 never seen such an expression in any" human 
 face before. It was a kind of wolfish smile, 
 — the joy of a beast of prey when its 
 victim approaches within the range of its 
 clutches. 
 
 Ingomar paused for a moment in his ex- 
 planation, and wiped his forehead with his 
 handkerchief. He began to grow uneasy. 
 
 That strange, greedy smile set him think- 
 ing. Could it be possible that Prebensen 
 
84 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 was knave enough to steal his invention? 
 This innocent boy had never come in con- 
 tact with human depravity, and could 
 scarcely persuade himself that such wicked- 
 ness could invade a human heart. Never- 
 theless, it would do no harm to be cautious. 
 He resolved quickly not to divulge the com- 
 position of his bombs, and without the bombs 
 the gun would be useless. 
 
 When he had finished, Prebensen looked 
 over his memoranda, and glancing up, asked 
 eagerly, — 
 
 "But those bombs in the harpoon? You 
 did n't tell me what they are made of." 
 
 " Excuse me. Consul, but that is my se- 
 cret," the boy replied, with a reserve which 
 contrasted with his former enthusiasm. " I 
 can only assure you that they will accom- 
 plish all I claim for them. I '11 allow you 
 to test them yourself, as soon as I get my 
 steel model." 
 
 The consul gave a start and turned pale. 
 He had not expected that reply. He had 
 felt sure that the guileless boy would give 
 himself entirely into his power. 
 
A Thorny Path. 85 
 
 ^* How can you expect me to stake money 
 on your invention when you won't explain 
 it to me? " he asked, with forced gentleness. 
 Inwardly he was growling, and longing to 
 strike his claws into this impudent youth 
 who dared to balk him. 
 
 ** I think I have explained enough to show 
 you that you may stake your money with 
 safety," Ingomar replied. 
 
 " Beware, young man, I give you fair 
 warning ! If you want me to help you, you 
 must n't hold anything back." 
 
 ** I have said enough to give you a guar- 
 anty of good faith." 
 
 " How do I know but that you have been 
 lying to me all the while?" 
 
 *' I never lied in all my life," cried Ingo- 
 mar, proudly; ** and you. Consul Prebensen, 
 are shrewd enough to know that what I have 
 told you is the truth ! " 
 
 " Then out with it, out with it, I tell you ! 
 Speak out now, and be quick about it ! You 
 shall have the money if you tell me all, but 
 otherwise not a cent. Or no, hold on ! You 
 might invent something to stuff me, know- 
 
86 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 ing that I am not a scientist. But anyway, 
 I '11 risk it. Speak out, and the money is 
 yours." 
 
 But Ingomar could not speak. He was 
 firmly convinced now that Prebensen would 
 in some way outwit him. So he calmly 
 screwed the pieces together, deposited the 
 gun in the box, and seizing his hat backed 
 toward the door. 
 
 *' You *11 repent of your folly some day ! " 
 snarled the consul after him. *' I '11 make 
 you repent of it, you fool ! How dare you 
 come here and insult me in my own 
 house? " 
 
 He started up threateningly ; but Ingomar 
 met his eye unflinchingly, and in no wise 
 hastened his movements. With perfect com- 
 posure he walked out through the store, 
 though his blood was hot with anger and 
 disappointment. The glare of the sunshine 
 made his eyes ache, and his temples 
 throbbed. 
 
 And so, adieu, fond dream ! How was he 
 now to make his invention useful? And all 
 the anxious days and the sleepless nights 
 
A Thorny Path, Sy 
 
 he had spent, tossed between hope and 
 fear, were now wasted, nay, worse than 
 wasted. 
 
 With these sad reflections he sauntered 
 along, scarcely feeling the touch of the earth 
 beneath his feet. He had got about half- 
 way down the hill, not far from the invisible 
 wire, when he spied Sophus Prebensen, the 
 consul's son, picking his way daintily over 
 the pavement. He wore a new silk hat, a 
 light brown summer overcoat, and new light 
 trousers of a stylish pattern. 
 
 He was, as usual, smoking a cigarette, and 
 flourishing a silver-handled bamboo walking- 
 stick in his hand. Quite unsuspicious of the 
 trap that lay in his path, he came striding 
 along, with his nose in the air, when lo ! the 
 invisible wire knocked off his new hat, and 
 sent it dancing into the gutter. 
 
 Sophus stopped, picked up his beaver 
 with great deliberation, and stared vindictively 
 up and down the street. Stealthily he ap- 
 proached the corner behind which he knew 
 the plotters must be concealed ; and when 
 •one unwary urchin put his head forward to 
 
88 Against Heavy Odds, 
 
 see if the coast was clear, Sophus grabbed 
 him by the hair and began to beat him 
 mercilessly with his stick. 
 
 The boy yelled at the top of his voice, as 
 well he might, for the stout cane came whiz- 
 zing through the air, whack, whack, whack, 
 and was raising tremendous welts on his 
 back. 
 
 Ingomar had stopped at the first scream 
 of the boy, but had not felt called upon to 
 interfere, as long as he believed the lad was 
 only receiving a reasonable punishment; but 
 when he heard his heart-rending shrieks and 
 saw the fury in his assailant's face, his gen- 
 erous wrath got the better of him, and he 
 bounded forward, seized Sophus by the arm, 
 and cried, — 
 
 " Are n't you ashamed of yourself to be 
 beating a little fellow like that ? " 
 
 The bully, thus suddenly arrested, wheeled 
 about and glared savagely at Ingomar. 
 **What business is it of yours, anyway?" 
 he asked. 
 
 " If anybody behaves like a brute to a 
 defenceless little chap, it is my business, and 
 
A Thorny Path. 89 
 
 if it is n't, I '11 make it my business," Ingomar 
 replied. 
 
 " It was n't me did it ! " croaked the little 
 gamin, rising with difficulty, but tumbling 
 again into the gutter. ** It was Bernt 
 Olsen." 
 
 His rescuer stooped down over him to 
 see if he was much hurt, and discovered 
 that it was Tobias's son Tom. He had just 
 put his hand on the lad's shoulder, and was 
 about to lift him up, when he heard the cane 
 whiz about his ears, and felt a stinging pain 
 across his back, 
 
 " I '11 teach you to meddle with what 
 does n't concern you ! " were the words which 
 accompanied the blow. 
 
 Ingomar darted up like a rocket, snatched 
 the cane out of his opponent's hand, and 
 flourished it about his head. 
 
 " You know I can whip you into flinders," 
 he cried, forcibly restraining his anger; "but 
 I '11 have pity on you, and only give you back 
 what I owe you ! " and raising the cane, he 
 gave Sophus a smart blow across his calves, 
 and hurled the stick into the gutter. 
 
90 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 The bully, receiving now a taste of what 
 he had inflicted upon little Tom, grew livid 
 with rage. He flung himself against Ingo- 
 mar, beat blindly about him, scratched, bit, 
 and kicked ; but two or three blows which 
 made the sparks dance before his eyes soon 
 reduced him to submission. With a swollen 
 nose, a crushed hat, and a much demoralized 
 toilet, the young dandy continued his way, 
 almost crying with pain and vowing dire 
 vengeance. 
 
 Ingomar picked up little Tom and carried 
 him home. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 A BLOW IN THE DARK. 
 
 IngoMAR felt sure, after his encounter with 
 Sophas, that Prebensen was meditating re- 
 venge upon him, for Sophus was the apple 
 of his eye. Even if he might be willing to 
 forgive Ingomar's distrust of him in refusing 
 to part with his invention, he would never 
 forgive the black eye given to his son and 
 heir. 
 
 Ingomar tried to guess what form the con- 
 sul's revenge might take, but he could not 
 guess anything that seemed at all likely. A 
 square and open attack of whatever nature he 
 would not have feared ; but it was Prebensen's 
 way to strike in the dark, and against a blo\v 
 in the dark no one can defend himself. 
 
 There was, however, one thing which in- 
 terested him more than anything he had to 
 fear from Prebensen, and that was the testing 
 
92 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 and perfecting of his invention. There was 
 but one way left by which he might hope in 
 time to save up the money needed for the 
 steel model; but that was such a slow way 
 that he had not thought of resorting to it, 
 until he knew that it was the only way left. 
 
 There was a good demand for mounted 
 birds. By stuffing fine specimens of gulls 
 and auks and penguins, and selling them to 
 the tourists, he might in two years become a 
 capitalist to the extent of two hundred dol- 
 lars ; but two years seemed an eternity to 
 the impatient boy, burning with eagerness to 
 see his daring dream realized. However, as 
 there was now no help for it, a slow way 
 was surely better than no way. 
 
 The third day after his interview with the 
 consul, Ingomar called on Tobias, and asked 
 him to accompany him for a day's hunt 
 to the Twin Islands. The mate, who was 
 anxious to get on friendly terms again with 
 his favorite, was nothing loath ; and off they 
 started together in Vang's sail-boat, the 
 "Black Swan." 
 
 The wind, which was from the southwest, 
 
A Blow in the Dark. 93 
 
 filled the sail as they tacked out of the harbor, 
 and promised to keep steady, at least until the 
 afternoon. They had a rifle and a fowling- 
 piece wrapped in oilskin cases in the bottom 
 of the boat, and a luncheon-basket contain- 
 ing bread, butter, smoked ham, and a bottle 
 of milk. A keg of fresh water, an extra suit 
 of oil-clothes for each of them, and a couple 
 of boat-hooks completed their equipment. 
 
 Tobias was in brave spirits, and told stories 
 about his adventures on the high seas. 
 Sitting astride the rear thwart, smoking a 
 clay-pipe, he scanned the horizon, which 
 stretched bright and blue toward the ice- 
 bound pole. 
 
 '* I tell ye, lad," he said, blowing the blue 
 smoke lazily into the air, *' them was great 
 times when I sailed as cabin-boy in the 
 * Polar Star.' Mighty cantankerous craft 
 that * Polar Star ' was ; a bit too broad 
 in her beam to be a first-class racer, but 
 sound in her j'ints; and she could carry more 
 sail fur her size than any ship I ever clapped 
 eyes on. She made no end of money fur yer 
 dad on her first voyages ; and it was on her 
 
94 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 very first voyage that I had the fattest job I , 
 ever had in my hfe." 
 
 " How was that, Tobias?" 
 
 "How it was? Wal, lad, it was fat, I tell 
 ye ; that 's what it was. Ye know the sperm- 
 whale? Wal, he ain't anywhere near so big 
 as the Greenland whale; and one day when 
 we had harpooned one of them little chaps, 
 his head, which was full of sperm ile, had 
 been cut off and h'isted aboard. As I was 
 a-sayin', I was only cabin-boy in them days, 
 and I suspicion I was a bit green ; an)Avay,- 
 as I came running up from below to see what 
 the racket was, the head of the whale which 
 the lads had cut open caught my eye, and 
 I rushed up to it. 
 
 ** * Toby,' cries Anders Nelson, the second 
 mate, — he was a bit of a wag, he was, — 
 *the cap'n has dropped his gold watch 
 into that whale's head, and he offers a dollar 
 to any man as can fish it out' 
 
 " He did n't have to tell me that twice. I 
 plunged my arm up to the shoulder-j'int into 
 the sperm ile ; but in the same moment my 
 feet slipped in the grease, and I tumbled 
 
A Blow in the Dark. 95 
 
 head -foremost into the whale's skull. There 
 I lay flounderin' and splutterin', for I 
 could n't get no footin' anywhere ; and the 
 lads, they roared and yelled and shrieked, 
 and nearly killed themselves larfin'." 
 ** But how did you get out, Tobias? " 
 "How did I get out? Wal, I shouldn't 
 never have got out, if Anders Nelson, the 
 second mate, seein' the joke had gone far 
 enough, hadn't pulled me out by the legs, 
 and flung me on a coil of rope ; and there I 
 sat, as sick as a dog, snortin' and gaspin'; 
 and the ile ran down my face from my hair, 
 jest as it did in the times of Aaron, only I 
 hadn't no beard then, like as Aaron had. 
 But anyway, lad, there ain't no denyin' that 
 that was the fattest job I ever had." 
 
 When they were well out of the harbor, 
 the wind veered about and struck them 
 abeam. The long, smooth ocean swell, as it 
 lifted the " Black Swan " and let her slide 
 again into the hollows, produced a rocking 
 motion which would have been, trying to a 
 land-lubber. The sun was dazzlingly bright, 
 the sky cloudless, and the sea seemed a 
 
96 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 great expanse of myriad shining dimples. 
 All the time whales were spouting and 
 blowing columns of spray high into the air; 
 but Tobias steered carefully out of the way 
 of those monsters, as it was not safe to en- 
 counter them in an open boat. 
 
 Now and then a family of seals raised their 
 glossy heads out of the water, and vanished 
 with a splash before Ingomar could get shot 
 at them. As they neared the Twin Islands, 
 they caught sight of another sail-boat that 
 seemed to be heading for the same point. 
 They signalled to her two or three times, but 
 she did not answer. 
 
 "Whose boat is that, Tobias?" asked 
 Ingomar. 
 
 " She looks to me like Prebensen's * Pen- 
 guin,' " answered the mate. 
 
 "What is she doing so far from shore, I 
 wonder?" the boy observed with a lively 
 interest. ** Neither the consul nor Sophus is 
 much for sport. I don't believe they know 
 how to handle a gun, either of them." 
 
 " No, nor could they sail a boat like that. 
 But the lass, though, she can handle the sail 
 
A Blow in the Dark. 97 
 
 with one hand, and the tiller with the other. 
 I 've seen her do it." 
 
 " So have I. But what could she be doing 
 out here? " 
 
 Tobias smoked for some minutes in 
 silence ; then he shook his head and ob- 
 served, ** * No one knows where the hare 
 goes,' said the man, when he put his trap on 
 the roof." 
 
 He sat watching the strange boat with a 
 mystified air, and Ingomar saw that there 
 was something that puzzled him. 
 
 " Pretty reckless sailing that ! " he re- 
 marked, as the ** Penguin " rounded the 
 point of the island. ** Look how she runs 
 up into the wind ! " 
 
 The Twin Islands, which rise out of the 
 Arctic Ocean, are two enormous rocks that 
 rest on a common foundation, split in two, 
 as it were, by the raging surf, which beats 
 forever with a thundering roar against their 
 base. The one known as the Reindeer 
 Island has some scant vegetation on the 
 sheltered side, particularly reindeer moss, 
 and a kind of delicious berries called multer^ 
 7 
 
98 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 which are so much liked that people travel 
 long distances to taste them 
 
 The Horn Island — for so the other twin is 
 named — points two black, threatening crags 
 against the sky, and is the home of thousands 
 of birds, which cover every inch of the rock 
 on the seaward side. 
 
 There the great auks and the puffins sit in 
 long regular rows, like soldiers on parade, 
 looking as grave as judges. The gulls fight 
 for dear life to gain possession of an exposed 
 ledge of the cliff upon which petrels and surf- 
 scoters have encroached. The black cor- 
 morants, those feathered thieves, sit calmly 
 watching the sea, and whenever a gull or an 
 auk has caught a fish, they pounce upon her, 
 and with angry screams and blows tear the 
 booty out of her bill; nay, if she has swal- 
 lowed it, they often compel her to gulp it up 
 again. 
 
 At the base of the crags the eider-ducks 
 have their nests; and for miles the sea is 
 thickly covered with their downy brood, tak- 
 ing their first swimming-lessons. They are 
 so tame that they scarcely move out of the 
 
A Blow in the Dark. 99 
 
 way if you try to catch them. They seem 
 to be aware that the law protects them, and 
 that there is a fine imposed upon him who 
 does them harm. 
 
 Between the two crags which the birds 
 occupy there is a natural entrance, like a 
 portal, into the interior of the island. Here, 
 you would suppose, in this wide, sheltered 
 space, Nature had provided a most desir- 
 able and delightful breeding-place for the 
 feathered hosts that make their living out 
 of the sea. 
 
 But, strange to say, not a bird is to be 
 seen. The bare, black rocks do not support 
 a single nest. While a desperate fight is 
 going on for every inch of the exposed crag 
 on the seaward side, and blood is shed and 
 the heavens are filled with the noise of 
 the combat, here neither gull nor auk nor 
 cormorant seeks a refuge, and the tumult 
 of wing-beats and screams is dimly heard 
 through the roar of the surf, softened by the 
 distance. 
 
 It is, of course, no art to kill a hundred 
 birds or more where the multitude is so great 
 
lOO Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 that every shot fired at random must bring 
 down a dozen. The first shot Ingomar fired 
 produced such an ear-splitting din that he 
 was loath to fire another. It was as if he 
 had conjured up a snow-storm of white- 
 winged living and screaming things. 
 
 He had picked out a beautiful specimen of 
 a great auk, which by means of the boat-hook 
 he fished out of the surf. A second and a 
 third shot brought down a royal penguin and 
 a burgomaster gull, which, on account of 
 their size and rarity, are much prized by 
 collectors. 
 
 He had managed to land in a little shel- 
 tered cove on the southwestern side of the 
 island, but finding no safe anchorage, had 
 left Tobias in the boat. Having killed as 
 many birds as he needed to stuff, he began 
 to climb the slippery rocks, the ledges of 
 which were so densely covered with nests 
 that he could scarcely move without treading 
 on eggs or hatching birds. 
 
 It seemed to him all of a sudden that he 
 heard through the screams of the gulls a 
 human voice calling his name. He sup- 
 
A Blow in the Dark. loi 
 
 posed at first that he must be dreaming, for 
 it was not the voice of Tobias, and moreover 
 Tobias was cruising about the island with a 
 troUing-Hne, wishing to utilize the time until 
 his master should wish to return. 
 
 Ingomar seated himself on a ledge of the 
 rock and listened. 
 
 Yes, there could be no doubt of it. Some 
 one was calling him. Before answering he 
 climbed around the crag to a place where he 
 had a view of the cove, and there, to his 
 amazement, he saw the ** Penguin," and 
 Ragna standing in the prow with a rope in 
 her hand. 
 
 " Look out ! " he shouted. *' You can't 
 anchor there ! " 
 
 Leaping with the aid of the boat-hook 
 from rock to rock, he made a tremendous 
 commotion among the birds, but reached in 
 a few minutes the cove. 
 
 ** Here," she cried, '' catch the rope ! " 
 
 " But you can't land here," he was about 
 to answer; but before he could utter the 
 words he had the rope about his neck, and 
 had no choice but to haul her in. He would 
 
I02 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 have protested once more, when Ragna put 
 her hands on his shoulders and leaped out 
 upon the stones. 
 
 But he knew that when Ragna made up 
 her mind to do a thing, it was of no use to 
 protest against it. He therefore waded out 
 into the water and anchored the " Penguin " 
 as safely as the circumstances permitted. 
 
 " But tell me now," he began, when he 
 stood, dripping and wet, at her side, *' what 
 does this mean? " 
 
 ** I can't hear my own voice here," she 
 shouted ; ** those birds make such an awful 
 racket ! Let us go in through this gate ; 
 perhaps it is quieter inside." 
 
 He followed her wonderingly through the 
 rocky portal. The wind blew her yellow 
 hair about her face, and her eyes shone with 
 excitement. 
 
 " Ingomar," she said, as soon as the noise 
 subsided, *' I want you to go away from here." 
 
 "Go away from where?" he queried in 
 astonishment. 
 
 ** From Vardoe, — from your home." 
 
 "But why — why should I go away?" 
 
A Blow in the Dark. 103 
 
 " Do you remember what you once said to 
 me? You said you were going to be a great 
 man. Here at home you will never be any- 
 thing but what you are now." 
 
 " You wait and see." 
 
 They were now within the great rocky hall. 
 The black walls rose on all sides with their 
 jagged outline against the sky; the floor, 
 though uneven, was rather smooth, as if 
 worn in past ages by the action of the waves. 
 There was a muffled roar in the air as of a 
 mighty wind far away, but they could talk 
 easily without raising their voices. 
 
 The girl paused for a moment, and stared 
 as if startled at the wild and lonesome aspect 
 of the place. Then she seated herself on a 
 bowlder, while Ingomar flung the birds he 
 had shot on the ground, and placed himself 
 in front of her, leaning upon his gun. 
 
 There was something almost imploring in 
 the way she glanced up into his face; and 
 the thought flashed through his brain that 
 she must have some very weighty reason for 
 wishing him to leave home, since she had 
 come so far to give him the warning. 
 
104 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 " Don't beat about the bush, Ragna," he 
 said, returning her earnest look. '* You have 
 some other reason for wishing me to go." 
 
 "Well, what if I have?" she answered 
 resolutely. She blushed, however, in spite 
 of herself, and looked away in confusion. 
 " I wish you had n't hurt Sophus," she mur- 
 mured, struggling with her tears ; '' it is that 
 which has made all the mischief, and what 
 makes me so miserable is that it was I who 
 brought it all on you.'* 
 
 "You? How so?'* 
 
 " 1 advised you to see father about your 
 invention, and he promised me to lend you 
 the money, if you could satisfy him that it 
 was worth anything; and I was so happy 
 about it ! " 
 
 " Well, but you see I did n't satisfy him." 
 
 " Oh, I don't understand it at all ! " cried 
 the girl, giving free vent to her grief; " but if 
 you had n't gone to see father, you would n't 
 have met Sophus, and I should n't be so un- 
 happy as I am." 
 
 *' Then it is on your father's account you 
 want mc to leave?" 
 
A Blow in the Dark. 105 
 
 She bowed her head, covered her face with 
 her hands, and wept piteously. '' I only tell 
 you this, — that you must go, Ingomar," 
 she pleaded. 
 
 " Then tell me why." 
 
 ''Well — well — " She raised her head, 
 and wiped away her tears with her handker- 
 chief; " but why must you compel me to 
 say it ? " 
 
 " Because I must know it. Otherwise I 
 shall not go." 
 
 " Well — my father — he hates you, In- 
 gomar. I know — both he and Sophus — 
 mean to do you harm." 
 
 "And is that the reason you came to see 
 me here? " 
 
 " Yes ; I could n't see you in town." 
 
 '* How do they mean to harm me? " 
 
 " That I don't know, for they don't quite 
 trust me. But it is so hard, Ingomar, to hear 
 them talk of you as they do. You have 
 
 always been so good to me, and I can't 
 
 # 
 
 bear to hear any one speak ill of you." 
 
 She looked up at him with a sweet, tearful 
 smile, which was so appealing that he could 
 
io6 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 not help smiling in return, though he was 
 anything but joyous. 
 
 " Ragna," he said, " I should like to follow 
 your advice,, but I cannot. I love this place, 
 I have spent all my life here ; and if it comes 
 to that, — no one can drive me away, I am 
 not afraid of anybody." 
 
 " Oh, you don't know what you are say- 
 ing ! " she cried. '' You are a boy — and my 
 father — oh, you don't know him ! He is 
 very rich and very — powerful ! " 
 
 She continued to plead with him for a long 
 while, appealing now to his ambition and the 
 brilliant chances of success which the great 
 world offered him, if he would but reach out 
 his hand and seize them. To him departure 
 at this time appeared like flight from an 
 enemy; and against such an appearance his 
 manly pride rebelled. 
 
 Seeing that she could accomplish nothing 
 by her entreaties, Ragna took her leave ; and 
 he helped her into the boat, pulled up the 
 anchor for her, and stood knee-deep in the 
 water, watching with admiration her clever 
 seamanship. 
 
A Blow in the Dark. 107 
 
 How prompt, how agile and deft she was 
 in all her turns and movements ! Now she 
 ran up the sail just at the right moment, 
 turned the tiller, and scudded away over the 
 sea, through the swarms of screaming birds, 
 and was soon out of sight. 
 
 Ingomar fired a shot as a signal to Tobias 
 to lay to. He was so much stirred by what 
 he had heard that he had lost all taste for 
 further sport. They ate their luncheon in 
 silence, and after some more trolling for cod, 
 turned the prow homeward. But as ill luck 
 would have it, the wind fell off, and for more 
 than four hours the sail hung slack and they 
 made no headway against the tide, which was 
 running out. 
 
 The sun lost its brightness as it sank 
 toward the sea, and grew fiery red. A pur- 
 plish mist hovered along the horizon ; and 
 the Twin Isles, as they lifted their frowning 
 brows above the ocean, looked as if they 
 had been steeped in blood. Gradually the 
 flaming splendor spread over the whole sky, 
 and land and water swam in a crimson 
 glow. 
 
io8 /^gainst Heavy Odds. 
 
 As the night approached, the colors grew 
 deeper and more wildly intense ; and strange 
 it was to see the screaming swarm of birds, 
 deluded by the light, dive, swim, and fly with 
 the rosy flush of the midnight sun upon 
 their wings. 
 
 It was not until the last bit of provisions in 
 the basket had been eaten that the sail of the 
 " Black Swan " began to flap and then sud- 
 denly bulged out. You could see the wind 
 approaching like a track of flame across the 
 waters ; and it was hailed with shouts of joy, 
 after the long and tedious drifting. 
 
 It was about one o'clock in the morning 
 when they reached Vardoe ; and it was none 
 too soon, for the wind had increased to a 
 storm, the sky had darkened, and the sun had 
 vanished behind a black veil of cloud. 
 
 Wearily they* trudged up through the 
 deserted streets, Tobias carrying the killed 
 birds, and Ingomar the rifles and hunting- 
 gear. At Mr. Vang's front door they sepa- 
 rated, with a promise to meet on the morrow, 
 for the tourist season was now at its height. 
 If any money was to be realized from the 
 
A Blow in the Dark. 109 
 
 birds, they would have to be stuffed and 
 mounted at once; and for the rougher part 
 of this work the aid of Tobias was almost 
 indispensable. 
 
 Not wishing to arouse his father, who was 
 a poor sleeper, Ingomar determined to spend 
 the night in his workshop, where he had a 
 sofa and some pillows; for as he had ex- 
 pected to be home at a much earlier hour, he 
 had not thought of taking a latch-key. 
 
 Picking up his birds, which were very 
 heavy, he crossed the court-yard, entered 
 the stable, and fumbled his way up the 
 stairs. 
 
 It seemed to him suddenly that he saw 
 a flash of light through the key-hole, and 
 heard the creaking of boots and the tread 
 of wary footsteps. What could it be? His 
 heart stood still, and his breath stuck in his 
 throat. 
 
 There could be no doubt of it ! There 
 was some one above in his workshop. The 
 light had been quickly blown out, but he 
 could hear a faint sound as of hands grop- 
 ing for the door, Ingomar pressed himself 
 
no Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 tightly against the wall, and stood still as 
 a mouse. Whoever the intruder was, he 
 should not escape him. 
 
 Ragna's warning occurred to him, and for a 
 moment his blood ran cold. But who would 
 have expected to find him here at this hour? 
 No, it was not to do him bodily harm that 
 this nocturnal visitor was abroad. He could 
 scarcely guess any other purpose, and he was 
 too excited, for the moment, to be ingenious 
 at guessing. 
 
 For five, ten, nay, fifteen minutes he stood 
 there in the dark, pressed up against the 
 wall. He began to grow impatient. Was it 
 likely that the intruder could have escaped 
 through the window? That, to be sure, was 
 not improbable. 
 
 The boy felt himself growing hot at the 
 thought of such a possibility. He could en- 
 dure his uncertainty no longer. He took 
 one, two, three steps; and the rickety old 
 stairs creaked horribly under his weight. 
 
 He was within two steps of the top, when 
 suddenly the door was torn open, and a 
 figure dashed plumb against him, knocked 
 
A Blow in th2 Dark. 1 1 1 
 
 him over, so that he tumbled down the 
 whole length of the stairs, and then darted 
 out of sight across the court-yard and into 
 the street. 
 
 By the time Ingomar had picked himself 
 up, it would have been hopeless to look for 
 the fugitive. A fine, drizzling rain was fall- 
 ing, and it was quite dusky. There were a 
 hundred hiding-places in the sea-booths and 
 rigging-lofts, and among the innumerable 
 barrels that were piled about the wharves. 
 
 Ingomar stood for some minutes in the 
 stable-door and gazed out into the twilight. 
 His shoulder, which was badly bruised, 
 pained him, and he had a big bump on his 
 forehead, which had been struck in the 
 fall. 
 
 But it was not this which occupied his 
 thought. Who could this midnight visitor 
 have been, and what could have been his 
 object in breaking into the workshop? An 
 ordinary thief would have known better 
 than to break in where there was nothing 
 to steal. 
 
 And there was nothing in that shop which 
 
1 1 2 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 would be of value to anybody — except — 
 except — the harpoon gun ! 
 
 Ingomar turned about and darted up the 
 stairs like a shot. He felt dizzy. The 
 blood throbbed in his ears. The harpoon 
 gun, — his invention, the child of his sorrow, 
 which he loved above all other things, 
 upon which he had expended his best 
 thought and energy, about which revolved 
 his ambition and his hopes of success ! 
 Reeling across the floor like a drunken 
 man, he fumbled above the chimney for the 
 match-safe, struck a light, and rushed with a 
 wild fear in his eyes toward the turning- 
 bench. 
 
 The match went out, and with tremulous 
 hands he struck another. He took his time 
 now, lighted a candle, and stood for a while 
 staring into the flame, bracing himself as for 
 a blow. 
 
 He could doubt no longer; and as he slowly 
 turned about, he was prepared for what he 
 saw. The harpoon gun was gone ! The 
 drawer of the table where he kept his 
 chemical formulae and the results of his 
 
A Blow in the Dark. 113 
 
 experiments had been broken open, and 
 every bit of paper it contained had been 
 carried away. 
 
 The thief had worked at his leisure, evi- 
 dently believing he was safe from interrup- 
 tion, and had made thorough work of it. 
 
 Ingomar stood pale and still, with the 
 candle in his hands, gazing at the ruin of his 
 hopes. He scarcely dared to think. 
 
 It was all over with him. His invention, 
 upon which he had staked his all, was in the 
 hands of another, and in the hands of one 
 who would not hesitate to realize whatever 
 profit there was in it. For though he had 
 had no glimpse of the thief, he knew as well 
 as if he had seen him that it was either Pre- 
 bensen or some one whom he had employed. 
 
 He could have wept ; but his grief was too 
 bitter for tears. A burning indignation, a 
 consuming wrath, took possession of him. 
 He had hoped to forge a weapon by means 
 of which his father should again rise to his 
 former position and the family recover its 
 lost eminence ; and now that weapon was 
 actually in his enemy's hand, and would be 
 8 
 
114 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 used to crush and utterly annihilate his 
 father. 
 
 While these bitter reflections filled his 
 mind, Ingomar's glance fell by chance upon 
 the little shelf above the chimney. 
 
 Suddenly his face brightened. His eyes 
 dilated with a new hope. To ward off the 
 shock of another disappointment, he ad- 
 vanced slowly, cautiously; put his hand on 
 a little box on the shelf, and took it down. 
 
 Panting with emotion, he stood gazing at 
 the little black and coppery-red balls it con- 
 tained. They were bombs, — half-a-dozen in 
 all, — the only ones he had made. 
 
 He remembered now having taken them 
 out of the drawer the day before, and 
 neglected to put them back; and by this 
 accident he had saved his secret. By being 
 left with no effort at concealment, they 
 had escaped the attention of the thief 
 
 The only thing Prebensen had secured 
 which might enable him to solve the riddle 
 was the papers recording the results of the 
 chemical experiments. If he possessed the 
 knowledge to read them, he might learn how 
 
A Blow in the Dark. 115 
 
 to make the bombs. But this knowledge 
 Ingomar knew Prebensen did not possess. 
 
 There was, however, yet a possibility 
 which filled Ingomar with apprehension. 
 The consul might easily call to his aid 
 some one who could decipher the chemical 
 riddle, and so discover his secret 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A FRIEND IN NEED. 
 
 InGOMAR was clever enough to realize that 
 he had no time to lose. It was now a race 
 between Prebensen and him as to who should 
 first procure the patent. 
 
 That the consul had sent the papers and 
 the model to some famous scientist, — or at 
 least the papers, for he was too shrewd to 
 reveal more than a part of his secret to 
 any one man, — Ingomar knew as well as 
 if he had read the letter containing the 
 instructions. 
 
 His first thought had been to report the 
 whole affair to the police, and prosecute the 
 thief; but his father dissuaded him so ear- 
 nestly from taking this course that he had to 
 abandon it. Prebensen was too powerful a 
 man to be captured in that way. He had 
 a hundred resources where Ingomar had but 
 one, and in so desperate a combat the 
 
A Friend in Need, 117 
 
 weaker would be not only ruined, but utterly 
 crushed. 
 
 Thus matters stood when, one fine morn- 
 ing, an English pleasure-yacht came steaming 
 up the Busse Sound, and dropped her anchor 
 in the harbor. Ingomar, who had been at 
 work during the last week on a new model 
 of his harpoon gun, containing some im- 
 provements, besides in his leisure moments 
 stuffing and preparing sea-birds, levelled his 
 telescope at the fine ship, and read on the 
 prow the name " Lady Jane Gray." 
 
 He saw here an opportunity to earn some 
 money, and accordingly lost no time in row- 
 ing out to the yacht with his stuffed birds. 
 
 The proprietor. Sir Robert Graham, a 
 wealthy iron-master fi-om Manchester, re- 
 ceived him kindly, and bought his burgo- 
 master gull and the great auk for three 
 pounds. 
 
 The baronet, who was a tall, burly man, 
 with a bushy, iron-gray beard, apparently 
 took a fancy to the handsome youth, intro- 
 duced him to Lady Graham and the other 
 members of the party, and conversed with 
 
ii8 Against Heavy Odds, 
 
 him about the sports and the industries of 
 the island. He engaged Ingomar as his 
 guide and cicerone during the three or four 
 days he intended to spend in the neighbor- 
 hood, and by his kindness and consideration 
 soon gained his confidence. 
 
 " Mr. Vang," he said one evening, as they 
 sat on deck gazing at the flaming midnight 
 sun, " I suppose, Hke other youths, you have 
 your ambition. Tell me, my lad, what do 
 you intend to make of yourself? " 
 
 Ingomar hesitated before answering, and 
 the thought darted through his brain that 
 here was the man who could help him, if 
 he would. '' I intend to be an inventor," 
 he replied boldly. 
 
 "An inventor, oho! Isn't that rather a 
 curious trade?" queried Sir Robert, with a 
 laugh. 
 
 '' Perhaps ; but, with your permission, sir, 
 that is what I am, and I doubt if I shall 
 amount to anything if I try to be anything 
 else." 
 
 "Aha! Why, that is interesting! Per- 
 haps you have invented something already?" 
 
A Friend in Need, 119 
 
 " Yes, I have." 
 
 " Would it be indiscreet to ask what 
 it is?" 
 
 Ingomar's head was in a whirl. Suddenly, 
 like a tempting will-o'-the-wisp, hope danced 
 once more before his eyes. He considered 
 rapidly the consequences of confiding in a 
 stranger; but feeling sure that this stranger 
 was a good and honorable man, he quickly 
 decided to take the risk. 
 
 ** I have invented a harpoon gun for catch- 
 ing whale," he said, flushing with eager ex- 
 citement ; " but a thief came in the night and 
 stole my model." 
 
 " Stole your model ? " ejaculated Sir Robert 
 and Lady Graham in the same breath. ** And 
 has the thief taken out a patent?" 
 
 " Not yet, but he will unless I get the 
 better of him." 
 
 At the iron-master's request Ingomar now 
 told the story of his experiments, explained 
 the principle of his gun, and, as his agita- 
 tion rose, fairly amazed his auditors by his 
 eloquence. It was touching to see how his 
 face lighted up with pleasure as he described 
 
120 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 all the blessings to the district and to all 
 Norway that would flow from the new or- 
 der of things which would result from his 
 invention. 
 
 He spoke in a simple and straightforward 
 way, and yet with a warmth and spirit which 
 made a deep impression upon Sir Robert 
 and Lady Graham. Sir Robert, who was 
 himself a manufacturer of machinery, saw at 
 once that there was something practical in 
 the boy's idea; and the questions he asked 
 showed Ingomar that here was one at least 
 who fully understood him. 
 
 When he had finished his narrative, the 
 Englishman sat for a while smoking in 
 silence. Ingomar looked anxiously at him. 
 It seemed to him as if his whole future was 
 trembling in the balance. 
 
 ** The Bible says that ' the way of trans- 
 gressors is hard,' " observed Lady Graham, 
 •' but I should say that the way of the in- 
 ventor is even harder." 
 
 " Yes, it is a thorny path, — the path of 
 the inventor. It has always been so," an- 
 swered the baronet. " I would advise you 
 
A Friend in Need. 121 
 
 to try something else, young man," he con- 
 tinued, addressing Ingomar. '' Without large 
 means or powerful protection you '11 never 
 make a success of your invention." 
 
 He eyed the young man sharply while he 
 spoke, as if he would read his very souL 
 The poor fellow, seeing his hope again van- 
 ish, felt as if the ground had suddenly given 
 way under his feet. He felt dizzy ; and his 
 heart, though it kept thumping violently 
 against his side, was like a lump of lead in 
 his breast. 
 
 His first impulse was to turn his back on 
 Sir Robert, and show him the contempt he 
 felt for him; for how could he doubt that 
 he too, having abundant means at his com- 
 mand, intended to steal his invention? He 
 was an unlucky fellow, indeed, destined to be 
 betrayed by every one whom he trusted. 
 
 His pride, however, came to his rescue. 
 He would not give Sir Robert the satisfac- 
 tion of seeing how deeply he was wounded. 
 So, repressing every sign of emotion, he 
 turned a pale, resolute face toward the baro- 
 net, and said, " I am sorry to have troubled 
 
122 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 you with my affairs, sir. I shall not presume 
 to do so again." 
 
 ** And then you '11 give it up, won't you, 
 and take up some more useful calling? " 
 urged Sir Robert, smiling at the boy's 
 haughty manner. 
 
 " No, sir, I shall never give it up ! " Ingo- 
 mar replied hotly. " As long as there is a 
 drop of blood left in me I shall fight; and if 
 I fall, I shall fall fighting." 
 
 " Bravo, young man, bravo ! " cried Sir 
 Robert, jumping up and grasping his hand. 
 " You 've the right stuff in you, I see that. I 
 only wanted to test you. I believe in your 
 invention, and you shall not have trusted in 
 me in vain. I will cheerfully bear the ex- 
 pense of putting your model in steel, and 
 you can pay me back when your patent 
 begins to be profitable." 
 
 ** Oh, thank you, sir, thank you ! " 
 
 If the sky had tumbled down about his 
 ears, the young inventor could not have 
 been more astonished. He scarcely dared 
 to trust his own ears. The deck seemed to 
 billow under his feet, and the fiery mists 
 
A Friend in Need, 123 
 
 that draped the horizon gave an air of 
 strange, almost magic unreality to everything 
 that came within the range of his eyes. 
 
 Perhaps he was only dreaming, and would 
 wake up presently and find the barren, cruel 
 reality confronting him. He stared at Sir 
 Robert and Lady Graham with a desperate 
 determination to hold them fast, and to pre- 
 vent them from vanishing into golden vapors ; 
 and the great burly voice of the baronet, 
 when it spoke out again in tones of encour- 
 agement, was to Ingomar's ears the sweetest 
 music to which he had ever listened. 
 
 " How would you like going back with us 
 to England?" he asked. *' I have a big 
 machine-shop in Manchester, where I em- 
 ploy upward of two thousand m^n. There 
 you can work out your idea at your leisure ; 
 and when you have made your final tests, 
 you can patent the gun both in England and 
 Norway. That would more than double 
 your profits." 
 
 It is not necessary to record the discussion 
 that followed. The end of it was that In- 
 gomar, with his father's consent, sailed for 
 
124 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 England with Sir Robert Graham. There he 
 labored for a year with unwearied diligence 
 in Sir Robert's machine-shop, and became 
 in an extraordinarily short time an expert 
 machinist. The day when he had finished 
 his model in steel his happiness knew no 
 bounds. 
 
 In the evening he was invited to dine at 
 Sir Robert's house, and was treated with 
 such consideration by every one present that 
 his bashfulness quite vanished. He was be- 
 guiled by Lady Graham into talking about 
 his native land, and describing the Twin 
 Islands and the great breeding colonies of 
 the Arctic birds. Ingomar did not think he 
 had ever spent so pleasant an evening in all 
 his life. . 
 
 " I suppose," said Sir Robert, when the 
 guests had departed, " that what we now 
 have to do is to take out your patent, and 
 the next thing will be to test the gun." 
 
 " Sir Robert," Ingomar answered, " I want 
 to confer upon you my patent rights for 
 England in return for what you have done 
 for me. I am now sure the thing will work, 
 
A Friend in Need, 125 
 
 but without you I should never have been 
 sure of anything." 
 
 **And there is another thing that has oc- 
 curred to me in this connection," he went on 
 to say. " If you can make sure that the 
 dead whale will float, there is no need of 
 fitting up sailing vessels for long voyages. 
 A small, strong, steel-armored steamer will 
 then be much more serviceable. There are 
 plenty of Finmark whale along the Arctic 
 coasts of Norway; and my idea is that the 
 steamer, as soon as a whale has been killed, 
 should tow it ashore, cut off the blubber 
 and the whalebone there, and convert the 
 meat into fertilizers. Then nothing will be 
 wasted. 
 
 "A small steamer of twenty-horse power 
 could hunt the whale on a grand scale. It 
 could race with him, tire him out, shoot the 
 harpoon into his belly, and tow him ashore. 
 If my gun is to be a perfect success, I must 
 make or hire a small steamer for our first 
 expedition." 
 
 The young man who spoke thus had got- 
 ten larger ideas of life since he left Norway. 
 
126 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 He formed daring plans now, and saw al- 
 ready the golden fruit of success dangling 
 before his eager vision. 
 
 But, to do him justice, it was not the gold 
 that excited his fancy. He had a noble and 
 generous nature. His first desire was to 
 restore his father to the position of which 
 he had, by foul means, been deprived; and 
 secondly, to help the poor and miserable 
 people of his native town by offering them 
 steady work, at wages which would enable 
 them to spend their lives in tolerable comfort. 
 
 The idea of hunting whale with steam and 
 artillery delighted Sir Robert. It seemed in 
 harmony with the modern age. The old 
 Norse god of strength, Thor, who fished 
 for the world-serpent with an anchor baited 
 with the head of a bull, became a pygmy 
 compared to this modern monster with the 
 strength of twenty horses, belching forth 
 steam and smoke, shooting the barbed har- 
 poon into the body of its prey, and making 
 the whale explode, by its first effort at es- 
 cape, a deadly charge of powder, bullets, and 
 volatile gases. 
 
A Friend in Need. 127 
 
 It was all so complex, — so intricate and 
 ingenious. It bore the stamp of a daring 
 spirit. The boy who at so early an age 
 could dream such dreams, even though 
 they should prove to be nothing but dreams, 
 was a genius, and deserved all the encour- 
 agement which wealth and cordial sympathy 
 could give him. 
 
 " By the shade of Moses, my dear fellow, 
 you have got a first-class, patent-excelsior 
 head-piece on your shoulders ! " was the 
 baronet's exclamation when Ingomar had 
 unfolded his plan for the gigantic marine 
 chase. " But at this point permit me a 
 question. You have never yet told me what 
 your bombs are made of. The only doubt 
 in my mind is this. How can you, by the 
 explosion of one or two bombs, small 
 enough to be hidden in the point of the 
 harpoon, generate enough gas to float the 
 enormous carcass of a whale, if it is dis- 
 posed to sink? " 
 
 '^ I am glad you asked me that," Ingomar 
 replied. '* In the first place you must take 
 into account that the whale's body is about 
 
128 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 of the same specific weight as the sea-water. 
 It would be its natural disposition, by reason 
 of its blubber (which is lighter than water), 
 to float; and a fair proportion of Greenland 
 whales will float without any artificial aid. 
 But the number of those which sink con- 
 stitute, as a rule, the diff"erence between 
 profit and loss in a whaling-voyage. That 
 margin I intend to save. The force I need 
 to supply to buoy up the sinking whale is 
 not in proportion to its huge size. It is but 
 that little diff'erence between sinking and 
 floating I have to supply, in a body which 
 would under normal circumstances float of 
 itself; but as I have said, the lean whale, 
 which falls a little below the average, can, 
 by the supplying of this small additional 
 force, be saved, and a probability of loss 
 be turned into a certainty of profit." ^ 
 
 The ardor with which Ingomar spoke, 
 when any question was raised as to his in- 
 
 1 The invention here described has actually been made, 
 and I could easily reveal the real name of the man who 
 made it ; but I fear he would take me to task for such 
 an indiscretion. 
 
A Friend in Need. 129 
 
 vention, never failed to arouse a sympathetic 
 interest in Sir Robert, who sat and beamed 
 upon him with a sort of paternal pride. 
 
 **You make out a very strong case, my 
 lad," he remarked thoughtfully; "we must 
 talk more about this business, and if it 
 proves to be feasible, I '11 take care that the 
 means be not lacking to carry it out." 
 
 Sir Robert was as good as his word. As 
 soon as he became convinced that the prob- 
 lem presented no insuperable obstacles, he 
 ordered a small steamer to be built on the 
 Clyde in accordance with Ingomar's design. 
 Though careful to reveal no secrets, he con- 
 sulted scientific experts regarding many de- 
 tails, without yet having his faith shaken in 
 the daring enterprise. 
 
 He went to visit Ingomar every afternoon 
 in his private laboratory, talked with him 
 while he worked, and often brought visitors, 
 to whom he introduced the young inventor 
 as a mechanical genius, — a future Fulton or 
 Stephenson. He did this for the purpose of 
 extending Ingomar's acquaintance among 
 influential men, and preparing the public for 
 9 
 
130 Against Heavy Odds, 
 
 the surprise which the harpoon gun and the 
 steam chase would make in the near future. 
 
 One day, when the Norseman was stand- 
 ing, black as a chimney-sweep, before his 
 forge, conducting an experiment in explo- 
 sives, with a view to finding a cheaper sub- 
 stitute for one of the ingredients in his 
 bombs. Sir Robert ushered into the room 
 a young Swede, whom he introduced as Mr. 
 Lindgren, the director of the great machine- 
 shop at Mora. 
 
 Mr. Lindgren was a tall, blond man, and 
 would have been handsome if it had not 
 been for the lynx-like and uneasy look in 
 his eyes. He was always trying to evade 
 the glance of the person with whom he was 
 talking. 
 
 Sir Robert was an easy-going man, and 
 not inclined to distrust any one; but a 
 vague suspicion invaded his mind when, by 
 chance, he noticed how the young Swede's 
 glance, as it were, pounced upon Ingomar, 
 when his back was turned, and then slid off 
 like a shadow the moment the young Norse- 
 man faced him. 
 
A Friend in Need. 131 
 
 But, after all, what could Ingomar have to 
 fear from a Swede travelling for his pleasure, 
 who from a very natural interest desired to 
 inspect the workshops of a colleague in his 
 own line of business? A man with dishonest 
 designs would have come in disguise as an 
 artist or scholar or a mere pleasure-seeker, 
 and would not have avowed his knowledge of 
 and interest in machinery. 
 
 Thus reasoned Sir Robert, while Mr. Lind- 
 gren conversed with Ingomar about the 
 chemical experiments he was conducting. 
 Again he was at no pains to conceal his 
 knowledge, and the baronet ended by laugh- 
 ing at his suspicions. He determined to say 
 nothing to his prot^g^ about his dislike of the 
 Swede ; and as, on the following day, he was 
 obliged to go to London, he thought no 
 more of the matter. 
 
 Contrary to his expectation he was de- 
 tained in the metropolis for a whole week by 
 important business; and Mr. Lindgren, who 
 had no other acquaintances in Manchester, 
 had to put up with Ingomar's society as a 
 substitute. At all events, he visited the 
 
132 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 laboratory daily, and sat and chatted famil- 
 iarly by the hour. 
 
 At the end of the week, when Sir Robert 
 returned, he bade his new friend farewell, 
 and started, as he averred, for Birmingham 
 and Sheffield. 
 
 But no sooner was he gone than Ingomar 
 received a tremendous eye-opener. Though 
 he had not exactly liked the Swede, it had 
 never once occurred to him to suspect him 
 of any dishonest purpose in visiting him. 
 Such visits are frequent in all large factories ; 
 and where all improvements are protected 
 by patents, they are expected and even 
 encouraged. 
 
 But the day after Lindgren's departure 
 Ingomar received two letters from Norway 
 which set him thinking. The one was anony- 
 mous, but could have been written by no 
 one but Ragna Prebensen. It read as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Don't have anything to do with a Swede 
 named Engstrom, and don't show him any of 
 your inventions. This is written by one who 
 wishes you well." 
 
A Friend in Need. 133 
 
 The other letter, which had obviously cost 
 its author both labor and sorrow, was as 
 difficult to read as it had been to compose. 
 As far as Ingomar could make out, these 
 were its contents : — 
 
 Too the wel-born and hyli-respekted masheenist, 
 Ingomar Vang. 
 
 witch it is mi dooti to you and your dad hoo 
 was vary good too me and myne, as long as he 
 had ennething too be good with, I want to tel 
 yoo too kepe yoor wether-ey pield. wereas The 
 Undersyned tels no lyes too no man, yoo kepe a 
 sharp look out from yoor manemast and yoor fore- 
 mast, fore yoo ma look out fore Skuawls. The 
 Man's nam is Engstrom and he is a swed. i se 
 him go to Prebensen evre da, and i se hi the 
 skulkin' luk in his ey that he is the man fore 
 Prebensen's durte jobs. So you luk out. This is 
 rit bi yoor respekted and Devoted sarvent 
 
 Tobias Trulson seccund 
 mat on board the hdiik petrel. 
 
 That these two letters, coming simultane- 
 ously from two persons who had had no 
 communication with each other, meant some- 
 thing serious, Ingomar could not for a mo- 
 
134 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 ment doubt. That his late visitor Lindgren 
 was the same man as Engstrom and was 
 a spy in Prebensen's employ, was more 
 difficult to believe. 
 
 But it was easy to solve that riddle. The 
 only thing Prebensen wanted was the bombs ; 
 and Ingomar knew exactly the number 
 which he had in his possession. He stood 
 for a while fumbling for the key in his 
 pocket. His fingers felt numb and cold, 
 while his face was burning hot. He had 
 a foreboding of calamity, and scarcely dared 
 to put the key into the key-hole. 
 
 But the operation was superfluous. He 
 saw, in an instant, that the lock was broken. 
 The discovery caused him no surprise. With 
 trembling hands he grasped the box con- 
 taining the bombs. There were three miss- 
 ing. A year ago this treachery on the 
 part of one whom he had treated with kind- 
 ness and courtesy would have saddened 
 and discouraged Ingomar. Now it had the 
 opposite effect. The fact that such extraor- 
 dinary efforts were made to get possession of 
 his secret proved to him how valuable it was. 
 
A Friend in Need. 135 
 
 He resolved to act promptly and not allow 
 himself to be outwitted. 
 
 It was perfectly plain to him how and why 
 the thing had happened. Mr. Prebensen 
 had made the mistake of taking an engineer 
 into his confidence, instead of a chemist; and 
 the engineer, being unable to read the record 
 of Ingomar's experiments, had come in per- 
 son to procure specimens of the bombs for 
 the purpose of having them analyzed. 
 
 As he was unable to analyze them himself, 
 he would have to send them to a chemist. 
 Thereby he would lose a few days ; and by 
 taking advantage of this, the rightful inventor 
 hoped to defeat the dishonest scheme. 
 
 He lost no time in telegraphing an appli- 
 cation for a patent and a full description of 
 his invention to the patent-offices in Christi- 
 ania and London; and when Sir Robert 
 returned, the same evening, they started 
 together for Hull, whence, the following 
 morning, they took the steamer for Norway. 
 
 But here a surprise was in store for them. 
 Lindgren was the first man they met on board 
 the steamer. He had evidently thought 
 
136 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 it the safer course to employ an English 
 chemist rather than a Norwegian one. He 
 shook hands with Sir Robert and Ingomar, 
 declared himself delighted to have the pleas- 
 ure of their society during the voyage, and 
 acted so much like an innocent man that 
 Ingomar began to question himself whether 
 he had not, after all, unjustly suspected him. 
 If it had not been for the skulking look in 
 the Swede's eye, he would have attributed 
 the loss of the bombs to some mysterious 
 accident. 
 
 Sir Robert, however, had seen too much of- 
 the world to be led astray by the swindler's 
 cordiality. When they arrived in Christiania, 
 about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, he took 
 no thought of his baggage, but grabbing his 
 proUg^ by the arm jumped into the first cab 
 he caught sight of, and told the cabman 
 to drive as fast as he could to the Patent 
 Office. 
 
 They had just turned the first corner of 
 Custom House Street, when they saw Lind- 
 gren, who had secured a much better horse, 
 dash past them. 
 
A Friend in Need. 137 
 
 " Look here ! " cried Ingomar to the Jehu, 
 rising up in his cab ; ** if you can get us to 
 the Patent Office before that fellow in the 
 cab there, it is ten dollars in your pocket." 
 
 *' Twenty ! " shouted Sir Robert, holding 
 up his ten fingers under the impression that 
 he had twice that number; "twenty dollars 
 in your pocket ! " 
 
 But, unhappily, the driver was one of those 
 slow-witted fellows whom it takes five min- 
 utes to comprehend any statement, however 
 simple. To the unutterable dismay of the 
 baronet, he stopped his horse, and with inno- 
 cent stupidity inquired where the Patent 
 Office was. In the mean while Lindgren's 
 cab had disappeared around another corner. 
 
 " Why did n't you tell us before, you block- 
 head, that you didn't know it?" thundered 
 Sir Robert. 
 
 Jehu, not understanding English, asked 
 what he could do for the gentlemen. If the 
 honorable gentleman was ill, he knew where 
 to find a doctor. 
 
 " Oh, you sublime donkey ! " yelled the 
 enraged baronet, " don't you comprehend 
 
13^ 'Against Heavy Odds, 
 
 that every moment you waste is worth a 
 fortune?" 
 
 Wasting no more words, Ingomar sprang 
 up on the box, seized the reins, and whipped 
 up the horse. But, unhappily, he had no 
 more idea of where the Patent Office was 
 than the driver, who, deprived of his dignity, 
 began to swear and to yell, " Police ! " 
 
 Two burly guardians of the peace came 
 rushing up in response to his call, seized the 
 horse by the bit, and could only with diffi- 
 culty be dissuaded from arresting the trav- 
 ellers. Paying the driver twenty crowns in 
 order to pacify him, Sir Robert and Ingomar 
 jumped out of the cab, and inquiring the 
 way of the policemen finally reached the 
 Patent Office. 
 
 As they had expected, they found Lind- 
 gren's cab standing outside. With their 
 hearts in their throats they darted up the 
 long flight of stairs, and having entered the 
 reception-room, found Lindgren in earnest 
 conversation with one of the officials. 
 
 " But, my dear sir," they heard the official 
 say, " that is the very patent that was applied 
 
A Friend in Need. 139 
 
 for by telegraph, three days ago, by one 
 Ingomar Vang." 
 
 " I did n't suppose an application by tele- 
 graph was legal," objected Lindgren, turning 
 his head and glaring savagely at the man 
 he was trying to defraud. 
 
 " When accompanied by descriptions and 
 specifications, it is perfectly legal," the official 
 replied. 
 
 *' I protest ! " exclaimed the Swede. " The 
 invention is mine ; it was stolen from me." 
 
 "If you are able to prove that, you can 
 get the patent cancelled, and your appHca- 
 tion will be considered." 
 
 Sir Robert, who had listened with bound- 
 less amazement, could contain himself no 
 longer. 
 
 " Look here, young man," he said, step- 
 ping forward and laying a heavy hand on the 
 Swede's shoulder, '' I charge you to your face 
 and in the presence of these gentlemen, with 
 theft. If you don't make yourself scarce, 
 I '11 have you in jail before night." 
 
 It was now Lindgren's turn to be amazed. 
 His uneasy glance wandered about the room ; 
 
140 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 but he did not dare to meet Ingomar's or 
 Sir Robert's eye. 
 
 " Excuse me, sir," he said, with embarrass- 
 ment to the official, " I '11 call again, later, 
 when we are safe from interruptions." 
 
 If there had been no other evidence of his 
 guilt, the way he darted out of the door 
 would have been enough to prejudice any 
 jury. Ingomar now produced his model, 
 explained its working, and at the end of a 
 month secured his patent. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 VENGEANCE OVERTAKES THE CONSUL. 
 
 While his steamboat was being built on 
 the Clyde, Ingomar spent much of his time 
 in superintending the details of the construc- 
 tion. He invented also an important im- 
 provement, which fascinated Sir Robert's 
 fancy. This was a pair of iron wings, which 
 could be folded like those of a bird, and again 
 spread out under the water so as to act as a 
 break, increasing the ship's power of resist- 
 ance when the harpooned whale took it in 
 tow. 
 
 I doubt if Aladdin, when his gorgeous 
 palace rose out of the ground, was half as 
 happy as the young Norseman when he saw 
 his daring thought gradually take shape in 
 steel and iron. He walked about in a joy- 
 ous excitement, sang to himself, and shouted 
 with delight. 
 
142 ' Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 He had no doubt now of the success of his 
 plans. Full of confidence in the future, he 
 named his steamer the ** Phoenix." 
 
 It was his first purpose to name it *' Sir 
 Robert Graham," in honor of his benefactor, 
 and to let it remain his property, while keep- 
 ing for himself only his patent rights in the 
 harpoon gun; but to this Sir Robert ob- 
 jected. He did not want to speculate in his 
 friend's genius, he said. He would take a 
 mortgage in the steamer for its entire value, 
 but vest the ownership in Ingomar, who 
 could then, in case of success, repay the 
 amount at his leisure. 
 
 It was accordingly thus arranged, and the 
 launching of the steamer was fixed for the 
 tenth of April, Lady Graham's birthday. 
 In the mean while Ingomar was to return to 
 his native town, and engage a captain and 
 crew. 
 
 The prospect of appearing in Vardoe 
 clothed with such authority gave him a sense 
 of importance which he keenly relished. At 
 the age of eighteen to have reached the dig- 
 nity of an employer was an achievement 
 
Vengeance Overtakes the Consul. 143 
 
 which more than satisfied his ambition. He 
 determined to offer Tobias the position of 
 first mate. What eyes the honest fellow- 
 would make when such promotion was 
 offered him ! And then to throw off the 
 detested yoke of Prebensen, and re-enter the 
 service of the firm of Vang & Co., — that 
 would be joy indeed ! 
 
 Ingomar spent the four or five days of the 
 voyage from Hull in making out the list of 
 the men he would engage, for he knew every 
 sailor in the town, and his reputation for skill 
 and sobriety. The only trouble was that 
 they were now all in Prebensen's employ, 
 and the consul would regard the effort to en- 
 gage them as a declaration of war. 
 
 Nevertheless, as the war had to come 
 sooner or later, Ingomar resolved to take a 
 bold stand, and not to shrink from the fight. 
 
 He knew that his enemy was shrewd and 
 unscrupulous, and he was prepared for every 
 kind of shabby trick and underhand ma- 
 noeuvre; but he would have his eyes open, 
 and not allow himself to be caught napping. 
 He had seen something of the world now, 
 
144 Against Heazy Odds. 
 
 and had greater confidence in himself. He 
 was neither friendless nor penniless, as he 
 was two years ago, when Prebensen thought 
 he could crush him, as he would an insect, 
 under his heel. ♦ 
 
 It was about noon one day in the middle 
 of March that Ingomar arrived in his native 
 town. The voyage had been stormy, and 
 would have been tedious if his own happy 
 thoughts had not afforded him entertainment. 
 The sky was yet a trifle overcast, but the sun 
 was breaking through the clouds as the boat 
 steamed up the Busse Sound. 
 
 It struck the young traveller as singular 
 that beside the mail sloop in which old 
 Mr. Vang was, not a single craft came out 
 to meet the steamer. Ordinarily the harbor 
 swarmed with yawls and wherries on steamer 
 days, and half the population thronged down 
 on the quays, some eager for news, others 
 looking for a job, and many from mere curi- 
 osity; but to-day, in spite of the fair weather, 
 the quays were deserted. 
 
 When the accommodation ladder was low- 
 ered, Ingomar ran down to greet his father, 
 
Vengeance Overtakes the Consul. 145 
 
 whose face, he noticed, wore a troubled and 
 anxious look. 
 
 ''What's the matter, father?" he cried. 
 " Is there an epidemic in town ? " 
 
 *'No," Mr. Vang answered; '' but there is 
 a riot." 
 
 " A riot ! " 
 
 " Yes, the garrison has been called out, 
 but the soldiers have been obliged to return 
 to the fortress. The people are terribly 
 enraged." 
 
 "Against whom? " 
 
 " Against Prebensen." 
 
 " Prebensen ! And what has he done? " 
 
 " Well, you know the fisheries failed out- 
 right this winter on account of the terrible 
 weather. There has been great distress here, 
 and several poor people have actually starved 
 to death. Prebensen's sea-booths were burst- 
 ing with provisions of all kinds; but he re- 
 fused to sell except for cash, and as the 
 people had no cash, he let them starve. 
 Listen! Do you hear that?" 
 
 A piercing yell, indescribably wild and 
 fierce, followed by a chorus of hoarse screams, 
 
146 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 came floating over the water, and in the same 
 moment a column of smoke, dense and black, 
 rose into the still air. 
 
 " They are firing the sea-booths ! " ex- 
 claimed Mr. Vang, with a terrified counte- 
 nance. "They may burn the whole town! 
 That man, that man ! I warned him long 
 ago, but he sneered at me, and prated about 
 business principles. Now vengeance will 
 overtake him." 
 
 The mail-pouches had by this time been 
 received from the steamer, and the prow of 
 the sloop was pointed toward shore. 
 
 *' It seems odd that the people did n't attack 
 the sea-booths long before this, when they 
 have been starving all winter," Ingomar 
 remarked. 
 
 *' You may indeed say so. What caused 
 the outbreak to-day was the news that Pre- 
 bensen's * Walrus ' — an old ram-shackle con- 
 cern that ought long ago to have been 
 condemned — has been wrecked off the 
 Hebrides, and all the crew perished. And 
 it has leaked out, too, through a clerk in the 
 bank, that the consul must have known of 
 
Vengeance Overtakes the Consul. 147 
 
 the wreck long ago, but has kept it secret; 
 for he has had time to collect his insurance. 
 Yesterday, it is said, he deposited the check 
 of an English marine insurance company for 
 fifty thousand crowns.^ It was this rumor 
 which started the riot. That was the straw 
 that broke the camel's back." 
 
 "But who started the riot? Somebody 
 must have taken the lead." 
 
 " Your old friend Tobias. He has a long 
 score to settle with Prebensen. Besides, his 
 brother Marcus was mate on the ' Walrus,' 
 and was drowned with the rest." 
 
 The three oarsmen, who were visibly anx- 
 ious to have a hand in the spoils, pulled for 
 dear life ; and as soon as the boat bumped 
 against the wharf, they ran up the stairs and 
 made for the scene of the conflagration. 
 Mr. Vang and Ingomar were obliged to help 
 the mail-clerk carry the letter-pouches up to 
 the post-office. 
 
 " It is God's mercy that there is no wind 
 to speak of," said Mr. Vang; " otherwise the 
 fire might spread over the whole town." 
 
 ^ About ten thousand dollars. 
 
148 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 ** But a big fire is apt to produce a wind," 
 his son replied. *' It would be a pity if all the 
 town were to suffer for Prebensen's villany." 
 
 The bells were now tolling the alarm from 
 the church-tower, and two cannon-shots from 
 the ramparts of the fortress made the doors 
 shake and the windows rattle in the post- 
 office building. 
 
 Father and son hurried through the empty 
 streets, each with a dim fear that some awful 
 calamity was at hand. The smoke came 
 rolling like a black pall over the house-tops, 
 and the smell of burning wood and tar filled 
 the air. 
 
 The old-fashioned fire-engine with its un- 
 wieldy hand-pump came lumbering, in a 
 leisurely manner, down the hill, but seemed 
 in no haste ; and half-a-dozen citizens in the 
 uniform of the volunteer fire company strolled 
 along after it, carrying red-painted buckets 
 of leather which they were by law required 
 to have hanging under the ceiling in the en- 
 trance to their court-yards. 
 
 It was easy to see that they did not regard 
 the destruction of Consul Prebensen's sea- 
 
Vengeance Overtakes the Consul, 149 
 
 booths as a personal disaster. Nor, to be 
 candid, did Ingomar take Prebensen's loss 
 much to heart. The only one of the family 
 for whom he had a kindly feeling was Ragna, 
 and he did not imagine that she would be 
 seriously affected by this fire. 
 
 But what made him uneasy was the fear 
 lest the fire, if left unchecked, might gain 
 such headway that with the poor and awk- 
 ward engines it would be impossible to extin- 
 guish it. 
 
 Filled with this dread, he stopped at his 
 home only long enough to fling his valise on 
 a chair and kiss his sister, who had for a 
 week looked forward to his arrival in happy 
 excitement. 
 
 The church bells were still tolling with a 
 deep, tremulous apprehension, as he bounded 
 down the front stairs and rushed toward the 
 wharves. Rude noise and laughter, wild yells 
 and shouts, and occasional hoarse cheers 
 reached his ears, and gave him an idea of 
 what was going on before he reached the 
 scene. The red flames were now leaping 
 toward the sky, obscured for the moment by 
 
150 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 a cloud of dense brown smoke, from which 
 again they burst forth with wilder vehe- 
 mence, accompanied by a dull, steady roar 
 like the draught of a tremendous furnace. 
 
 Now and then a brilliant shower of sparks 
 rushed upward with a loud crackle as some 
 new, inflammable stuff caught fire. 
 
 Two large sea-booths, both belonging to 
 Prebensen, were burning, and a third was 
 threatened. Enormous quantities of goods 
 were piled along the sides of the streets; 
 barrels of molasses and sugar, bags of coffee, 
 boxes of tea, hams, salted beef, smoked sau- 
 sages, and bales of yarn and cloth were 
 tumbled helter-skelter in the gutters and on 
 the sidewalks. 
 
 The strong smell of rum which pervaded 
 the air explained to Ingomar much that had 
 happened. Three big hogsheads had been 
 knocked open, and everybody was helping 
 himself to his heart's desire. The pavement 
 for half a dozen squares showed tracks of 
 sugar and flour and salt, and pungent spices 
 made people sneeze who had torn open the 
 bags in the hope of finding something eatable. 
 
Vengeance Overtakes the Consul. 151 
 
 About the burning sea-booths the streets 
 were packed with excited men and women, 
 who cursed and yelled, swaying hither and 
 thither, some trying to get away with bags of 
 stolen provisions, others guying them and ' 
 tearing the booty from their hands. Some 
 were intoxicated, but the majority were more 
 intent upon satisfying their vengeance than 
 their thirst. 
 
 When Ingomar had reached the outskirts 
 of the crowd, he found them rushing with 
 angry screams and gestures against the two 
 old fire-engines, which they were determined 
 to prevent from putting out the fire. 
 
 ** Go it, boys, go it ! " shouted a voice, 
 which he recognized as that of Tobias. 
 " Let the old bloodhound get his due ! We 
 don't want no engines. Keep 'em away, 
 mates ! That 's right ! Break the handles ! 
 Cut the ropes ! Let her hum, — the old 
 ramshackle ! Don't have no mercy on Pre- 
 bensen ! There was many a brave lad aboard 
 the * Walrus,' but he had n't no mercy on 
 them." 
 
 Tobias had climbed up on a pile of bales 
 
152 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 and boxes in order to make himself heard, 
 and his stalwart form and coppery face stood 
 out in strong relief against the burning sea- 
 booths. 
 
 Every sentence he uttered was greeted 
 with cheers ; and before he had finished, the 
 crowd rushed against the fire-corps that had 
 charge of the engines and drove them back. 
 They were just about to demolish the de- 
 crepit machine when Ingomar sprang for- 
 ward, mounted the pump, and cried, — 
 
 " Stand back, lads ! If you don't want to 
 burn the town, you've got to put out this 
 fire ! " 
 
 His sudden appearance there, when he was 
 supposed to be a thousand miles away, had 
 an almost magical effect. He was well liked 
 by all ; and the story of his achievements in 
 England, which had been immensely exag- 
 gerated, had made them proud of him 
 as well. 
 
 " Why, Ingomar ! " " That 's Ingomar ! " 
 half-a-dozen voices ejaculated. " Get down, 
 Ingomar ! Surely you are the last one to 
 take that bloodhound Prebensen's part ! " an 
 
Vengeance Overtakes the Consul. 153 
 
 old pilot added, nodding with friendly famil- 
 iarity to the young man. 
 
 " No, lads, I don't take Prebensen's part," 
 Ingomar replied, in so loud a voice that he 
 could be heard by all. *■ I am with you, heart 
 and soul, as against Prebensen. But what 
 harm are you doing Prebensen by burning 
 up his sea-booths, which are insured for all 
 they are worth and probably more ? You 
 don't want to burn up the town surely; and 
 that is what you will be doing, if you don't 
 allow the fire company to get near enough to 
 protect the nearest buildings." 
 
 ** He is right ! " the soberer among the 
 throng exclaimed ; " he 's right ! Let the 
 engines pass ! " 
 
 Leaping down, Ingomar with a dozen 
 others took hold of the foremost engine, and 
 dragged it down in front of the burning sea- 
 booths. The crowd opened a path for him; 
 and the other engine soon followed. Quick- 
 ly he formed the men into lines, reaching 
 from the wharf into the street; and the red 
 leather buckets were handed up, filled, by the 
 one line, and returned empty by the other. 
 
154 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 He was congratulating himself that every- 
 thing was going smoothly, when he saw 
 Tobias break ruthlessly through the lines 
 and advance toward him. 
 
 "Who is boss here, I should like to know," 
 asked the mate, angrily, — ** you or I ?" 
 
 " The one who can make himself obeyed," 
 answered Ingomar. 
 
 " Look here, lad," Tobias continued, sud- 
 denly cooling down, *' I don't want to fight 
 you. But you must n't come and meddle 
 here. To-day I mean to settle my score 
 with Prebensen, if it is to be the last day 
 of my life. Stand back, lad, and let 's be 
 friends ! " 
 
 " You stand back yourself, Tobias ! " re- 
 torted Ingomar, firmly. " You can't burn 
 the town because you have a grudge against 
 Prebensen. When I have put out this fire, 
 I '11 talk with you all you like, but now I 
 have not the time.'* 
 
 He formed his lines again, and soon had 
 four columns of water playing upon the fire. 
 His eyes were everywhere ; his ringing tones 
 of command were heard above all the noise. 
 
Vengeance Overtakes the Consul. 155 
 
 Seeing that one of the neighboring booths 
 was in danger, he had wet sails brought from 
 the ships in the harbor, and hanging these 
 over the exposed walls and roofs saved them 
 from catching fire from the flying sparks. 
 He was so absorbed in these various tasks 
 that he did not observe what was going on 
 on the outskirts of the crowd. There Tobias 
 had gathered an excited group about him, — 
 most of them relatives of the lost crew of the 
 *' Walrus," — and was addressing them in this 
 fashion: — 
 
 ** It is true, as the lad says. We Ve made 
 him richer and not poorer by burning his 
 sea-booths, just as the storm made him richer 
 by foundering the ' Walrus.* His skinny old 
 carcass, — that 's the only thing of his which 
 we can hurt, — and that no insurance com- 
 pany can patch for him. Let 's make him 
 smart, mates, for the ill he has done us." 
 
 With about thirty furious men he started 
 in the direction of Prebensen's mansion ; 
 but before they had reached the middle of 
 the next block, their number was more 
 than doubled. It soon became rumored 
 
156 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 where they were going; and a great multi- 
 tude, to whom the fire could afford no more 
 entertainment, set themselves in motion and 
 rushed up the street toward the consul's 
 residence. 
 
 At the time when Tobias was addressingr 
 the crowd, Prebensen was sitting quietly in 
 his office, talking with the chief of police. 
 
 "Just watch them carefully," he was say- 
 ing ; *' take down the names of the ring- 
 leaders and every one who carries anything 
 off. Before another month we shall have 
 them in jail, with stand-up collars about their 
 necks, every mother's son of them ! " 
 
 " Exactly, Mr. Consul, exactly ! " answered 
 the chief of police, rubbing his hands de- 
 lightedly. " I '11 take care to collect all the 
 testimony which we may require." 
 
 " That 's business ! " cried the consul, with 
 a dry, mirthless laugh ; "in jail, every one of 
 them, — six, nine, and twelve years, — that '11 
 teach them respect for capital, eh, Mr. 
 Chief?" 
 
 The chief of police rose and took his leave. 
 Prebensen followed him to the door, bowing. 
 
Vengeance Overtakes the Consul. 157 
 
 He had just turned his back on the exalted 
 official, when a subdued roar, like that of a 
 cataract, fell upon his ears. He faced about 
 toward the street again, and saw in the dis- 
 tance the furious mob approaching. He 
 grew suddenly as pale as a ghost. 
 
 " Hansen ! Jensen ! Olsen ! " he cried to 
 the clerks ; " bar the doors ! Put up the iron 
 shutters, quick ! For God's sake, hurry ! " 
 
 Swift as an arrow, he darted toward the 
 money- drawer, which he pulled out, and 
 rushed into the inner office, the door of 
 which he closed behind him. The most con- 
 spicuous object there was a great safe, like 
 that of a bank, which was built into the wall, 
 displaying the backs of ledgers and metal 
 boxes filled with money and securities. 
 
 Emptying the contents of the money- 
 drawer, with nervous haste, into a linen bag, 
 and quickly collecting all papers of value 
 on the desk, the consul, casting a terrified 
 glance toward the windows, which the clerks 
 were darkening with the huge shutters, un- 
 locked the two heavily bolted doors of the 
 safe and stepped into the vault. 
 
158 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 At that very moment his son Sophus, who 
 had discovered the mob from an upper win- 
 dow, came rushing into the room to give 
 warning; and seeing the dusky interior and 
 the door of the safe open, he supposed his 
 father, in his fright, had left the room, for- 
 getting to lock it. 
 
 Flinging himself against the huge door 
 with his whole weight, he slammed it, and 
 beside himself with fear, yelled to the clerks 
 to arm themselves with pistols and harpoons 
 or anything they could lay hold of. 
 
 He did not hear the smothered shriek 
 from within the safe ; for he was already 
 half-way up the stairs, carrying an old rifle 
 with a bayonet, which the clerk Hansen had 
 handed him. 
 
 Prebensen had purposely had his safe so 
 made that it could be hastily locked, without 
 the use of the elaborate combination. The 
 inner bolts were supplied with springs, and 
 the ends so rounded on one side that they 
 would catch like the latch of a door. Sus- 
 picious as he was, he had always been afraid 
 that any one should discover how rich he 
 
Vengeance Overtakes the Consul. 159 
 
 was, and it had therefore always been his 
 custom quickly to slam the door of the safe 
 before admitting any one to the office. 
 
 Now he stood within this narrow vault, 
 numb with terror, pulling desperately at the 
 heavy steel bars, which mocked his feeble 
 exertions. 
 
 The wealth he had labored for since his 
 earliest years — for the sake of which he had 
 sacrificed friendship, gratitude, and affection, 
 nay, his very soul — was round about him. 
 
 Bags heavy with gold and silver coin, 
 drawers full of precious securities, — English 
 consols. United States bonds, Prussian funds, 
 
 — all that was safest and best in the world of 
 finance, — all these things, for which he had 
 hungered, and for the sake of which he had 
 loaded his name with curses, were within the 
 grasp of his hand ; but, alas ! how worthless 
 they were to him now ! A breath of vital air 
 
 — the cheapest and commonest boon, which 
 even the poorest mortal possesses in abun- 
 dance — would be a thousand times more 
 precious than all the hoarded wealth of the 
 Indies. 
 
i6o Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 Hush! What is that? Strange, hollow 
 noises resound through the house, — dull 
 thuds, as of heavy things falling; quick ex- 
 plosions, as of pistol-shots, and then an 
 angry, surging roar like that of the ocean 
 breaking over an embankment. 
 
 The consul with a wild despair grabs the 
 steel bars of the door, and pulls and wrenches 
 and tugs at them; but it is all in vain. A 
 white mist swims about him ; his blood throbs 
 and hammers in his temples ; faint, red flames 
 dance before his eyes; an oppressive weari- 
 ness steals over him ; his limbs feel as heavy 
 as lead. 
 
 Once, twice, thrice he tries to raise his 
 voice and shriek, but not a sound can he 
 produce. Again, wild, faint noises, through 
 which pierce keen cries of terror. Yes ; he 
 knows now what it means. His house is 
 being plundered by the mob ; his wife and 
 children are, perhaps, being maltreated for 
 his sake. So this is to be the end of 
 all his ceaseless toil and ambition ! He re- 
 membered suddenly Vang's warning words, 
 *' They are now at your mercy, but the day 
 
Vengeance Overtakes the Consul, i6i 
 
 may come when you will be at their mercy." 
 That day had come. 
 
 He wished now he had heeded Vang's 
 warning. He might have been a blessing to 
 the community in which he lived, without 
 greatly diminishing his wealth. He might 
 have reaped benedictions instead of curses. 
 As he thought of this, an impatient regret, 
 which cut like a sharp sword, pierced his 
 heart. 
 
 But his faintness grew upon him, and out 
 of it he glided gradually into the deeper 
 unconsciousness of the long, long night. 
 
 Tobias, at the head of the angry mob, 
 was pounding with a sledge-hammer at the 
 front door of Prebensen's mansion. He had 
 shouted repeatedly to the clerks to open, but 
 they were as yet more afraid of the consul 
 than they were of him. Bareheaded, with 
 torn clothes and a blackened face purple 
 with rage, the mate tried to batter down the 
 door, swearing and shouting between each 
 blow of the huge hammer. 
 
 The upper panel suddenly split, and in 
 two minutes the whole door was broken into 
 
1 62 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 splinters. Tobias burst into the house with 
 his sledge raised above his head, and the 
 crowd followed after him. 
 
 "Where is Prebensen?" they yelled. 
 *' Let 's find Prebensen ! " 
 
 They first spread through the store and 
 the other rooms of the first floor, and helped 
 themselves to what they could find, but not 
 a trace of Prebensen could they discover. 
 Next the cellar was. ransacked, and every 
 closet searched, but the consul was and re- 
 mained invisible. 
 
 They had wrought themselves into such 
 a frenzy of indignation at the thought of 
 his escaping, that no plan of vengeance 
 seemed now too violent. Under Tobias's 
 lead they stormed up to the second floor, 
 and there they met with the first obstacle to 
 their progress. 
 
 At the head of the stairs stood a tall 
 young girl of sixteen, with a pale, deter- 
 mined face. In her hand she held the old 
 unloaded rifle with a bayonet at the end. 
 
 *' Stand back ! " she cried ; " the first one 
 who tries to pass is a dead man." 
 
Vengeance Overtakes the Consul, 163 
 
 A chorus of jeers from the mob greeted 
 this challenge. 
 
 Tobias, judging from the bayonet that the 
 rifle was not loaded, raised his sledge and 
 was about to knock it out of her hands, when 
 some one broke wildly through the crowd 
 and shouted, '' Don't dare to touch her ! " 
 
 In the next moment Ingomar had wrested 
 the hammer out of the mate's grasp, and 
 lifted it threateningly over his head. 
 
 " Fall back ! " he commanded. *' Who of 
 you is such a coward as to molest a lady? " 
 
 " We want Prebensen ! We want Pre ben- 
 sen ! " yelled a hundred voices. 
 
 **I beg of you, friends, to leave this 
 house, and not disgrace yourselves by fur- 
 ther violence." 
 
 He stood now at Ragna's side, barring the 
 way, so that no one could pass. He was 
 confident, too, that no one would attack 
 him, and Tobias least of all. 
 
 Within an hour the crowd had dispersed, 
 and the Prebensen mansion was saved. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE DAY OF TRIUMPH. 
 
 It was a bright sunny day about the 
 middle of April, three weeks after Consul 
 Prebensen's funeral. All the wharves were 
 black with people; every boat was loaded 
 to the water's edge, and on the spars and 
 masts of the ships in the harbor small boys 
 and sailors crawled, like flies under the 
 ceiling. 
 
 The sky was a vast shining vault, the 
 water glittered in the sun like a burnished 
 shield, and the downy brood of auks and 
 eider-ducks that swam upon its surface in 
 tranquil companies of twenty or a hundred, 
 looked as if they found swimming a de- 
 lightful occupation. 
 
 The black profile of the Horn Island 
 traced its jagged outline against the horizon, 
 but its myriad noisy colonists had suspended 
 
The Day of Triumph. 165 
 
 their quarrels for the moment, for they, 
 too, seemed to have a notion that some- 
 thing extraordinary was going on in their 
 immediate neighborhood. 
 
 What they saw was a small black steam- 
 boat, with red funnels and a gilded figure- 
 head representing the bird Phoenix rising, 
 with outspread wings, from its ashes; and 
 above the figure-head was mounted a gilded 
 swivel-gun which shot long, dazzling beams 
 in the sunshine. 
 
 To judge by its motions, this small steamer 
 had surely gone mad. Now it darted for- 
 ward at the top of its speed; now it sud- 
 denly flung itself about, pressing on with 
 tremendous force, while the spray flew 
 about its prow, and the long foaming swell 
 in its wake rocked thousands of rainbow- 
 tinted bubbles and pushed shoreward a 
 procession of shining billows. 
 
 There was an air of relentless energy and 
 dogged determination in the little black 
 monster which made the sailors in the mast- 
 tops confident that whatever it had set out 
 to do it would be sure to accomplish; but 
 
1 66 Against Heavy Odds, 
 
 the staid old citizens on the wharf, as they 
 watched its strange manoeuvres through their 
 telescopes, shook their heads, and asked one 
 another what the world was coming to. 
 
 " * Phoenix,' " observed the chief of police 
 to the commander on the fortress, as he 
 read the name, — ** was n't he a king some- 
 wheres? " 
 
 ** Yes," answered the commander, ** he was 
 the fellow who said that you should call no 
 man happy until he was dead." 
 
 *' Pretty level-headed chap, that same old 
 Phoenix ! " the chief remarked. 
 
 But look ! Now this same " Phoenix " 
 seems anything but level-headed. She is 
 heading right for the shore. She will surely 
 run aground. On a little platform in the 
 foremast Tobias is seen signalling to the 
 captain. Suddenly the boat swings vio- 
 lently to starboard, so that her beams creak 
 and her knees groan in their fastenings. A 
 mighty column of water shoots into the air 
 not fifty feet from the bow. 
 
 " Fire ! " screams Ingomar's voice from the 
 bridge. A red flash, an ear-splitting bang! 
 
The Day of Trhtmph. 167 
 
 The barbed harpoon darts forth, and is 
 buried deep in the belly of the whale. Now 
 let go the line ! The enormous bluish-black 
 bulk is seen shooting through the clear 
 waves, with the harpoon in its side dragging 
 the heavy line after it. 
 
 It is an exciting sight. Far, far down into 
 the cool pale-green deep you can follow the 
 huge beast, and see its elephantine efforts to 
 rid itself of the troublesome iron claw that 
 sticks in its flesh. It flings itself about from 
 one side to the other ; it changes its course 
 abruptly; it shakes its monstrous tail, it 
 opens and shuts its cavernous gap in wrath- 
 ful impatience. 
 
 But soon the fifteen minutes, during which 
 the air in its lungs will suffice, have expired. 
 It is forced to rise again to draw a fresh 
 breath. 
 
 Up it comes, — up through the transparent 
 emerald sea; its motions are sluggish, and a 
 long crimson trail spreads from its wounded 
 side. A blue-black island, like a submarine 
 rock, is slowly raised to the surface of the 
 water ; a column of spray is blown into the 
 
1 68 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 air, and again the animal dives, painfully, 
 ponderously, with laborious difficulty. 
 
 Soon the entire length of the line is run 
 out The whale gives a pull, and a mighty 
 one; then calmly continues its course, tak- 
 ing the " Phoenix " in tow. The captain 
 reverses the engines, but the twenty-horse 
 power is as nothing against the strength of 
 the great leviathan. 
 
 Foaming, shrieking, perspiring, churning 
 the water excitedly with its toiling screw, the 
 *' Phoenix " is dragged out toward the open 
 sea. Ingomar and Sir Robert, who stand on 
 the bridge, exchange anxious glances. 
 
 ** Now steady, my boy ! We are not at 
 the end of the game yet," the baronet 
 observes encouragingly, putting his hand on 
 Ingomar's shoulder. 
 
 " I know the bomb has exploded ! " the 
 latter exclaims ; *' but it won't kill at once." 
 
 " I did n't hear anything." 
 
 " You can't hear anything, except, per- 
 haps, a dull thud within the body of the 
 whale." 
 
 For half an hour the steamer, fighting des- 
 
The Day of Triumph. iCg 
 
 perately like a naughty child, pursued its re- 
 luctant way toward the Arctic wilderness. 
 
 " Now, Captain, let us try our wings ! ** 
 cried Ingomar. 
 
 Instantly a gigantic pair of steel wings, 
 shaped like those of a butterfly, is spread 
 out. The whale pulls again, and the " Phoe- 
 nix " trembles from bow to stern. Ingomar 
 trembles too, as he stands clutching the rail- 
 ing of the bridge, and gazes with a troubled 
 look at the placid ocean. He knows that 
 this is the critical moment. 
 
 Has the bomb exploded, or has it not? 
 His heart throbs with a suffocating speed, 
 then seems to stop. One minute passes, 
 and an intolerably long one ! Then, as the 
 ** Phoenix " shoots forward at half speed, — 
 as if afraid of what it will discover, — a dark, 
 gigantic mass is seen slowly, slowly rising 
 into view. And this time no water is blown 
 into the air. The whale is dead ! 
 
 A cry of relief escapes the anxious inven- 
 tor. It was as if life and death trembled in 
 the balance. He draws a long breath from 
 the bottom of his lungs. 
 
I/O Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 *' The whale floats ! " he cries, in a dehrium 
 of joy. " It floats, Sir Robert ! it floats 1 " 
 
 Cheer upon cheer rends the air! Every 
 sailor on board swings his cap, and yells 
 with all the might of his lungs. Sir Robert 
 grabs the young man's hand, and wrings it 
 as if he would wring it ofl*, and gazes at his 
 radiant face with eyes in which tears of joy 
 glitter. 
 
 " My dear boy," he cries, as soon as he 
 has found his voice, " you have won the 
 battle, though you fought against heavy 
 odds ! " 
 
 Ingomar stares back at Sir Robert and 
 tries to speak; but there is a lump in his 
 throat, and for a while he cannot utter a 
 word. 
 
 " Sir Robert," he manages at last to stam- 
 mer, " it was we who fought the battle ; it 
 was we who won the victory, — for without 
 you I should never have seen this day." 
 
 The chase was at an end. 
 
 The whale was taken in tow; and slowly 
 and cautiously the ** Phoenix " began her 
 return voyage. It was valuable booty she 
 
THE INVENTION IS SUCCESSFUL. 
 
The Day of Triumph. 171 
 
 had secured this time ! It was the future 
 of the town of Vardoe, nay, of all Fin- 
 mark, which she dragged after her at the 
 rate of three knots an hour. For if the whale 
 could be towed ashore, then all the parts of 
 its enormous carcass, which on the ocean 
 must be wasted, could be utilized. The flesh 
 and bones could be made into fertilizers 
 which would enrich the poor soil of Finmark 
 and make it profitable to cultivate ; the blub- 
 ber could be boiled and the oil refined with 
 modern machinery; much could be saved in 
 freight and in wages of crew, when the voy- 
 age was shortened to as many days as it 
 formerly took months. 
 
 Ingomar, as he stood on the bridge, steam- 
 ing in his own vessel back to the city of his 
 birth, saw his future unfold itself before him 
 in daring visions. With this ship "Phoenix," 
 not only his own family's fortunes, but the 
 fortunes of the town, should rise from their 
 ashes. Justice and generosity — the law of 
 the Golden Rule — should be his motto. 
 
 Prebensen's yoke of cruel and narrow self- 
 interest, which in the end defeats itself, 
 
1/2 Against Heavy Odds, 
 
 should no more oppress the people and 
 keep them in abject poverty. The house 
 of Vang & Son, reinstated in its old posi- 
 tion of prosperity and eminence, would 
 undo the wrong that Prebensen had done, 
 and reap blessings where the latter had 
 reaped curses. 
 
 These were the young man's thoughts as 
 he sailed up the Busse Sound, followed by 
 screaming swarms of sea-birds, who by their 
 multitude almost obscured the daylight. For 
 a dead whale means a feast to gulls and auks 
 and cormorants ; and they are not bashful in 
 claiming their share of the booty. Then, 
 too, the people on shore knew what this 
 winged host meant; they shouted them- 
 selves hoarse, and swung hats, caps, and 
 handkerchiefs. Long, gayly colored stream- 
 ers adorned the ships on the harbor; flags 
 were run up on many houses in town ; guns 
 and cannon were fired on the wharves and 
 responded to by the " Phoenix." 
 
 Never had the town of Vardoe, since the 
 day of its foundation, seen such joyous com- 
 motion as it witnessed on this day. People 
 
The Day of Triumph. 173 
 
 embraced one another in the streets from 
 excess of happiness. And when Ingomar 
 and Sir Robert stepped ashore, they were 
 greeted with cheers, speeches, poems, and 
 songs. 
 
 Ingomar was lifted bodily on the shoulders 
 of the crowd and carried in triumph to his 
 father's house. 
 
 There a little incident occurred which may 
 be worth recording. In the hall, just as he 
 entered, he saw a young lady, dressed in 
 mourning, apparently waiting for him. As 
 she threw her long black veil aside, he 
 recognized Ragna Prebensen. 
 
 He knew all the painful circumstances 
 connected with her father's death, and the 
 finding of his body in the safe, and he re- 
 spected her grief too much to be willing to 
 flaunt his own happiness in her face. 
 
 But in her other feelings were uppermost. 
 Without hesitation or embarrassment she 
 advanced toward him, grasped his hand 
 cordially, and said, — 
 
 " I could n't bear to be absent on the day 
 of your triumph, Ingomar. You know you 
 
174 Against Heavy Odds. 
 
 told me, two years ago, that you were going 
 to be a great man, and I believed you then 
 and always. I want to congratulate you 
 with all my heart." 
 
 " I thank you, Ragna," he answered, a 
 little tremulously, for her generosity touched 
 him ; '* it is very kind of you to rejoice in my 
 good fortune. And my only regret is that 
 it seems to have been purchased at the 
 expense of your sorrow." 
 
 " Well, it cannot be otherwise," she mur- 
 mured. *'Your star is rising, ours has set; 
 and I am more glad on your account than 
 sad on my own." 
 
 She turned to go away, but he still held 
 her hand in his, as if reluctant to let her 
 leave him. ** Ragna," he said warmly, 
 " your star has not set. Your star and mine 
 must rise together." 
 
 When at last the public celebration was 
 at an end, — though the small boys in the 
 street continued it until midnight, — Sir 
 Robert invited the government officials and 
 other prominent citizens to a magnificent 
 dinner on board the "Phoenix;" and it is 
 
The Day of Triumph. 175 
 
 only out of regard for Ingomar's modesty 
 that I refrain from repeating what was said 
 in the speeches which were made at this 
 banquet. 
 
 Let me only tell you this, that old Mr. 
 Vang was so overcome with joy that he 
 wept. 
 
 Exaggerated though they might seem, the 
 prophecies that were made about Ingomar 
 have not been falsified by his subsequent 
 life. He had fought against heavy odds; 
 but his indomitable pluck and perseverance 
 had in the end triumphed. The value of 
 his invention is now everywhere recognized ; 
 he has patented it in England, Germany, 
 Holland, and France, and it has made him a 
 rich man. 
 
 Vang & Son are now the greatest ship- 
 owners in northern Norway, and the whole 
 whaling industry is practically in their 
 hands. 
 
 Mrs. Ingomar Vang, «/<?Prebensen, seconds 
 her husband heartily in his efforts to inspire 
 the people with self-respect, and teach them 
 cleanliness, sobriety, and regard for health 
 
176 Against Heavy Odds, 
 
 in their modes of living and in bringing up 
 their children. She has poverty, ignorance, 
 and often vice and inherited customs to fight 
 against; but she fights with a brave heart, 
 knowing that she has the support of her 
 noble and generous Ingomar. And this 
 thought, also, strengthens her purpose amid 
 many discouragements, — that she owes it to 
 this community which her father plundered, 
 to compensate with good deeds for all the 
 ill that he accomplished. Like a ministering 
 angel she goes from house to house, cheer- 
 ing, comforting, teaching, alleviating suffer- 
 ing, and wisely dispensing charity. 
 
 Ingomar is her hero now, as he always 
 was ; and not only to her is he a hero, but to 
 the whole seafaring population of Norway. 
 Every Norse sailor regards it as an honor to 
 sail in his ships ; not only because he knows 
 that every ship that bears the name of Vang 
 & Son is sound in every joint, but because 
 the greatness to which the young owner has 
 risen from small beginnings dignifies every 
 man in his employ, and inspires him to labor 
 and to hope with a sturdy heart. 
 
The Day of Triumph, 177 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to add that the 
 qualities which made Ingomar's boyhood 
 remarkable have not deserted him in his 
 manhood. He has been and is yet a bless- 
 ing to his native town, nay, to his native 
 country. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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