"Can't you think of an easier plan than lugging them round the headland all that way by sea ?" "I'm sure I can't," Eric replied, with a hopeless stare.
"Then, I'll tell you," said Fritz.

"What think you of our just taking them up to the top of the plateau; and, after a short walk across the tableland, pitching our bundle of spoil down right in front of our hut-- without first loading up the boat and then unloading her again, besides having the trouble of toiling all the way from the beach to the cottage afterwards ?" "Why, that's a splendid plan!" cried Eric; "almost good enough for me to have thought of it." "I like your impudence!" said Fritz, laughing.

"Certainly, a young sailor of my acquaintance has a very good opinion of himself!" "Right you are," rejoined Eric, with his time-honoured phrase; and then the two, as usual, had a hearty laugh.
Skinning the seals and packing up the layers of blubber within the pelts was then the order of the day with them for some hours, Fritz pointing out, that, if they removed all the traces of the combat before nightfall, the seals would return to their old haunt the next day, the evening tide being sufficient to wash away the traces of blood on the rocks as well as bear to the bottom the bodies of the slain victims; otherwise, the sad sight of the carcases of their slain comrades still lying about the scene of battle would prevent the scared and timid animals from coming back.
Consequently, the brothers worked hard; and, practice having made them proficients in the knack of ripping off the coats of the seals with one or two dexterous slashes with a keen knife along the stomach and down the legs of the animals, they stripped off the skins in much less time than might be imagined.
Then, the pelts and layers of blubber were rolled up together in handy bundles and conveyed up to the plateau.

This was a very tedious job, necessitating, first, a weary tramp to and from the beach to where the path led up to the summit of the tableland; and, secondly, a scramble up the rocky and wearisome ascent of the plateau, this latter part of their labour being rendered all the more difficult and disagreeable by the bundles of blubber and skins, which they had to carry up on their heads in the same fashion as negroes always convey their loads--a thing apparently easy enough to the blacks by reason of their strong craniums, but terribly "headachy" for Europeans unaccustomed to such burdens! Fritz and Eric did not hurry over this job, however, deferring its completion till the morning.

They camped out on the plateau so as to be out of the way of the seals, glad enough to rest after their day's labour, without going hunting after the goats, as they had intended at first doing, the same afternoon.
Next morning, seeing no seals about--the animals probably not having recovered from their fright yet--they continued carrying up the skins and blubber, until they had quite a respectable pile on the plateau; when, the next question arose about its transportation across the tableland to the eastern side, immediately over the gully by which they used to climb up, near their hut.
"I wish we had brought your carriage, Fritz," said Eric, alluding to the wheelbarrow, which had been so styled by the sailor lad after he had utilised it as an ambulance waggon.
"It's too late to wish that now," replied the other.
"I could soon go round in the boat and fetch it, brother," cried Eric, looking as if he were going to start off at the moment.
"No, stop, laddie; we could not spare the boat," said Fritz, laying his hand on his arm.