It was a real pleasure now to watch the seals, that began to appear when the cutter was fifty miles north of Oonimak, and which increased in numbers as the day wore on. They exhibited very little fear even of the steamer, but would gaze curiously at her until they deemed her too near for their own safety, when they would suddenly sink out of sight and dart away like a flash.
“I never tire of watching the dear things,” said May Matthews, as she and Phil stood together in the narrow space just in front of the pilot-house. “What with their quick movements and lovely great brown eyes, I think they are simply fascinating; don’t you?”
“Indeed I do,” answered her companion; “and though this is the first opportunity I have had for studying them from this point of view, I shall always think of them after this as the most graceful and interesting of marine animals.”
“Do you know,” continued the girl, “they seem to me so nearly human that I don’t see how any one can have the heart to kill them; do you?”
“No,” replied Phil, boldly, “I do not; as I see them now, I would almost as soon think of shooting my dear old Irish setter Tab.”
In making this reply the lad was but expressing the honest sentiments with which he now regarded the business that had once seemed to him so harmless. He was thankful to discover, as he thought he had from her conversation, that Miss May had no idea of what his position on board the _Seamew_ had been, and determined that if he could prevent it she should never learn that he had been a seal-hunter. He was intensely chagrined, therefore, when, as he finished speaking, a voice from the pilot-house window directly above their heads said:
“Is not that rather a curious opinion for you to express, Mr. Ryder, seeing that you have so recently and successfully been engaged in that very business? For my own part, I can’t see any more harm in killing one of those seals than in killing a sheep; but then I’m very practical and haven’t a bit of sentiment.”
Looking quickly up and with crimsoned face, Phil recognized his first acquaintance of that morning; but before he could utter the retort that sprang to his lips, his companion said, quietly:
“Then I, for one, am sorry for you, Mr. Ramey; for it does not seem to me that people who are merely practical get the fullest enjoyment out of life.” Then, before the young lieutenant could make reply, she exclaimed: “Oh, there is a school of whales! Are you well acquainted with whales, Mr. Ryder? Let us go aft where we can see them better.”