Against heavy odds; a tale of Norse heroism

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AGAINST HEAVY ODDS

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

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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[From the Author's Pre/ace.']

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