Show J A DANGEROUS PLIGHT I One Old Sailors Exciting Adventure Witt a PolAr Hear In tho Cold Regions There is an old soldier named Jaka recently returned to San Francisco from an Arctic cruise who has made up this mind not to go on another whaling expedition ex-pedition no matter what happens The reason is this On one occasion during his late voyage Jake was on the watch in the lookout cradle at the masthead and it was night that is as much night as it ever gets up there in summer sum-mer The sun had been down about an hour and would rise again about an hour later It was a beautiful sight na the whip lay there in the ice and tho air seemed scintillating with a phosphorescent glow that penetrated everywhere and iiiade no shadows On all sides the pack ice lay close to the vessel and reached for miles in every direction broken occasionally occa-sionally by a large berg or the faint outlines out-lines of another ship The silence was profound It seemed to produce a roaring roar-ing sound like the waves of a distant ocean Such surroundings will put a person In a semicomatose state from which the slightest sound will awaken him with a start I Jako suddenly saw something white in the gloom climbing the mast His first impulse was to jump to the deck but before he could act upon it the white object climbed through the lubber hole and Jake then saw it was a polar bear Jake realized that he was in a most dangerous position and began to think of means to escape He called to the watch on deck below but they couldnt hear Ho tried to get out under un-der the canvas but the beast grabbed him and pulled him back It began thumping him and every time Jake attempted at-tempted to move away it would growl Suddenly his eyes lighted on a rope hanging to the deck just back of the cradle By this means he thought he could reach the deck To swing himself free was but tho work of an instant but the bear made a jump and caught hold of his foot But a few vigorous kicks freed him and then began a new terror Perhaps the rope was not strong and rm11 or he might miss the st the 111 + d 1v > In tEe air seemed years filled with horror and several times Jake wished he had taken his chances With the bear To grab the stay and hold on was the most difficult and twice Jakes hans slipped and almost lost it When he reached the deck he looked up and saw the rope swing back to the cradle where the bear grabbed it It tried to do as it had seen Jake do but had no sooner swung clear than it slipped f slip-ped and fell to the deck The crew had bearsteak for breakfast Son Francisco tern |