Wild Adventures round the Pole
Page 59
intervening yards. Then he took off his cap,and--Scotch fashion--tossed it as high into the air as he possiblycould.
"_Arrandoon_, ahoy!" he shouted. "_Arrandoon_, ahoy! Hurrah!"
There was not a soul on board that did not run aft to meet Silas as hesprang up the side. Even Freezing Powders, with Cockie on his shoulder,came wondering up, and Peter must needs get out his bagpipes and strikeinto _The Campbells are coming_.
And when Silas found himself once more among his boys, and shaking handswith them all round; when he noticed the pale faces of Allan and Rory,and the pinched visage of the once strong and powerful McBain, and readin their weak and tottering gait the tale of all their sufferings, thenit must be confessed that the bluff old mariner had to turn hastilyabout and address himself to others in order to hide a tear.
"Indeed, gentlemen all," said Silas, many, many months after this, "whenI saw you all looking so peaky and pale, as I first jumped down on toyour quarter-deck, I never felt so near making an old ass o' myself inall my born days!"
For three weeks longer the _Arrandoon_ lay among the ice before she gotfairly clear, and, consorted by the _Polar Star_, bore up for home.Three weeks--but they were not badly spent--three weeks, and all thattime was needed to restore our invalids to robust health. And that onlyshows how near to death's door they must have been, because to make themwell they had the best medicine this world can supply, and Silas Grigwas the physician.
"Silas Grig! Silas Grig!" cried Rory, one morning at breakfast, about afortnight after the reunion, "sure you're the best doctor that everstepped in shoe-leather! No wonder we are all getting fat and rosyagain! First you gave us a dose of hope--we got that before you jumpedon board; then you gave us joy--a shake of your own honest hand, thesound of your own honest voice, and letters from home. What care I thatmy tenantry--`the foinest pisintry in the world'--haven't paid up? I'vehad letters from Arrandoon. What, Ray boy! more salmon and another egg?Just look at the effects of your physic, Dr Silas Grig!"
Silas laughed. "But," he said, "there is one thing you haven'tmentioned."
"Tell us," said Rory: "troth, it's a treat to hear ye talking?"
"The drop o' green ginger," said Silas.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nor were these three weeks spent in idleness, for during that time thewhole ship, from stem to stern, was redecorated; and when at last shewas once more clear of the ice, once more out in the blue, she looked asbran new and as span new as on the day when she steamed down the wide,romantic Clyde.
I do not know any greater pleasure in life than that of being homewardbound after a long, long cruise at sea,--
"Good news from home, good news for me, Has come across the deep blue sea."
So runs the song. Good news from home is certainly one of the rover'sjoys, but how much more joyous it is to be "rolling home, rolling home"to get that good news, eye to eye and lip to lip!
Once fairly under way, the weather seemed to get warmer every day. Theyreached Jan Mayen in a week; they found the rude village deserted, andCaptain Cobb they would never be likely to meet again. So they left theisland, and on the wings of a favouring breeze bore away for Iceland.Here Sandy McFlail, Doctor of Medicine of the University of Aberdeen,and surgeon of the good ship _Arrandoon_, begged to be left. Ah! poorSandy was sadly in love with that blue-eyed, fair-haired Danish maiden.He fairly confessed to Rory, who had previously promised not to laugh athim, "that he had never seen a Scotch lassie to equal her, and that ifshe weren't a `doctor's leddy' before six months were over it would notbe his, Sandy McFlail's, fault."
"You are quite right, Sandy," said Rory in reply--"quite right; and doyou know what it will be, Sandy?"
"What?" asked Sandy.
"A vera judeecious arrangement," cried Rory, running off before Sandyhad a chance of catching him by the ear and making him "whustle."
But right fervent were the wishes for the doctor's welfare when he badehis friends adieu. And,--
"You'll be sure to send us a piece o' the bride-cake," said Ralph.
"I'm no vera sure," said Sandy, "if it will ever come the length o'bride-cake. But," he added, bravely, "a body can only just try."
"Bravo!" cried Allan; "whatever a true man honestly dares he can do."
"And it's sure to come right in the end," said Rory.
So away went Sandy's boat, and away went the _Arrandoon_, firing thefarewell guns, and as gaily bedecked in flags as if it had been Sandy'swedding morning.
The _Arrandoon_ sailed nearly all the way home, for a favouring breezewas blowing, and with stunsails set, low and aloft, she looked like somegigantic sea-bird; and bravely, too, the little _Polar Star_ kept her insight. As for Silas, he did not live on board his own ship at all, buton board the _Arrandoon_. There was so much to be said and to say thatthey could not spare him.
The inhabitants of Glentruim turned out _en masse_ to welcome thewanderers home. It was a day long to be remembered in that part of theHighlands of Scotland. The young chief, Allan McGregor, was not allowedto walk across one inch of his own grounds towards his castle ofArrandoon--no, nor to ride nor to drive; he must even be carriedshoulder high, while slogans rent the air, and blue bonnets darkened it,and claymores were drawn and waved aloft, and the dogs all went daft,and danced about, barking at everybody, plainly showing that they hadtaken leave of their senses for one day, and weren't a bit ashamed ofhaving done so.
Behind the procession marched Freezing Powders, with Cockie on hisshoulder. The poor bird did not know what to make of all this Highlanddin, all this wild rejoicing. But he evidently enjoyed it.
"Keep it up, keep it up, keep it up?" he cried; "here's a pretty,pretty, pretty to-do! Go on, go on! Come on, come on--ha! ha! ha! ha!Lal de dal de dal lei al!"
And off went Cockie into the maddest dance that ever legs of birdperformed. And Freezing Powders got frightened at last, and tried tolecture the bird into a quieter state of mind.
"I 'ssure you, Cockie," said Freezing Powders, "you is overdoin' it.Try to 'llay your feelin's, Cockie--try to 'llay your feelin's. As sureas nuffin' at all, Cockie, you'll have a drefful headache in demornin'."
But Cockie only bowed and becked and danced and laughed the more, tillat last Freezing Powders, looking upon the case as one of desperation,extracted from his pocket a red cotton handkerchief--the same he carriedCockie in when Captain McBain first met him on the Broomielaw--and inthis he rolled Cockie as in the days of yore; but even then all the wayto the castle Cockie was constantly finding corners to pop his headthrough, and let every one within hearing know that, though captured, hewas as far from being subdued as ever.
Poor old Janet was beside herself with joy. She had been preparingpastry and getting ready puddings for days and days. She was fain towipe her eyes with very joy when she shook hands once more with Ralphand Allan, and her old favourite, Rory. She was a little subdued whenshe looked at old Seth; she was just a trifle afraid of him, I believe.But she soon became herself again, and finished off by catching upFreezing Powders, Cockie and all, and bearing them off in triumph to thecosiest corner of the kitchen.
That same night fires were lit on every hill around Glentruim, and thereflection of them was seen southwards over all the wilds of Badenoch,and northward to the borders of Ross.
A few weeks after the return home Rory paid his promised visit to Silasat his little cottage by the sea, his cottage on the cliff-tops.Silas's flag fluttered right gaily in the wind that day, the summerflowers were all in bloom in the garden, and the green paling lookedbrighter, probably, than ever it had done, for the sun shone as itseldom shines--shone as if it had been paid to shine for the occasion,and the clouds lay low on the horizon, as if they had been paid to keepout of the way for once. The flag fluttered gaily, and the two littleblue-jackets on the top of the pole ever and anon made such terribleonslaughts upon each other, that the only wonder was there was a bit ofthem left, that they did not demolish each o
ther entirely, like thetraditional cats of Kilkenny.
Silas had gone to the station to meet Rory. Silas was dressed, as hethought, like a landsman. Silas really thought that nobody could tellhe was a sailor, because he wore a blue frock-coat and a tall beaverhat.
And Silas's little wife was all bustle and nervousness; but Rory had notbeen in the house half an hour ere all this was gone, and she wasquietly happy, with a kind of feeling at her heart that she had knownRory all his life, and had even nursed him when he was quite a littlemite.
Day and dinner and all passed off right cheerily, and of course withdessert Silas nodded to his little wife, and his little wife opened abottle