managedto carry the mate to the cavern. While Andrew attended to him, Ewen,Croil and I brought the drift-wood we had collected, and getting somedry moss from the rocks to kindle a flame, we soon had a fire blazing.
Andrew reported unfavourably of the mate. Two of his ribs were broken,and his legs fearfully crushed.
"Much turns upon his having a good constitution to enable him to getover it," observed my brother. "He has been a temperate man, and that'sin his favour, but I wish that he was safe on board, as he requirescareful nursing, and that's more than he can obtain in this wildregion."
A restorative which the doctor always carried, at length brought themate somewhat round, and he was able to speak.
"Have you seen anything of the ship?" was the first question he asked.
"No, we did not expect her so soon," answered Andrew; "she will comehere in good time, I dare say!"
"Then where are the boats?" inquired the mate.
"One is very much damaged," said Andrew; "we must wait for a favourableopportunity for bringing the other to this side of the island. In themeantime you must try and go to sleep. In the morning we will see whatis best to be done."
The poor mate asked no further questions, but lay back in an almostunconscious state, while Andrew sat by his side, endeavouring toalleviate his sufferings.
The rest of us, having cooked some venison, made a hearty supper, butthe mate was unable to eat a morsel. Andrew decided on sending Ewen andme back the next morning to obtain a cooking pot, in which he might makesome broth for the mate, as well as to bring the sail of the damagedboat, which might assist to shelter him from the cold. Should it befound impossible to get the boat round to the bay, he thought it wouldbe best to leave her there, and to let all the men come across, bringingthe gear of the two boats, and as much of the wood of the wrecked one asthey could carry. His idea was to build a hut, or to make the cavernhabitable. It was agreed that we should catch as many bears andwalruses as we could, so that we might have materials for constructingthe hut as well as for covering ourselves.
"It will be wise at once to make preparations for the winter. We mustprovide shelter, food, clothing, and fuel, and this will fully occupyall hands until the cold weather sets in," said Andrew. "Had we beencast on shore here at the end of the summer, we should in allprobability have perished; but now I hope that we shall be able tosupport existence until another spring, when we may expect theappearance of a ship to take us off."
Our plans being arranged, Andrew told us to lie down and try and getsome sleep, saying that he would keep watch in case any prowling bearshould pay us a visit, besides which he wished to attend to the mate. Ibegged him, however, to let me sit up for a couple of hours, promisingto call him, should I fancy that our injured companion required hisassistance. He at last consented. In a few minutes he and the rest ofthe party were fast asleep. I carefully made up the fire, then, aftersome time, feeling drowsy, I took my rifle, and went outside the cavern.The night was tolerably light, indeed the darkness in that latitude wasof short duration. As I looked in the direction where the body of thewalrus lay, I fancied I saw two or three white objects on the rocks. Atfirst I thought that they were piles of snow or ice; but, watching themattentively, I observed that they were moving, and I had no doubt theywere bears attracted by the body of the dead walrus, on which theyexpected to banquet. I now regretted that we had not had time to carryoff the skin, which would of course be torn to pieces and renderedvalueless. I was much tempted to try and shoot the bears, which I mighteasily have done while they were feasting, but I considered that I oughtnot to leave my post, and I did not like to awake Andrew, who requiredall the rest he could obtain, I therefore returned to the cave and satdown by the fire, thankful for the warmth it afforded. When I judged Ihad been on watch a couple of hours, I aroused my brother.
"You were right in not trying to shoot the bears, for even had youkilled one the others might have set upon you, and we cannot afford tolose another of our party," he said. "Lie down now, as you have a longjourney before you; and I shall be glad if you can bring the men overhere before another night sets in." It was broad daylight when mybrother awoke me and the rest. The mate appeared somewhat better, and,as he had no feverish symptoms, Andrew expressed his belief that hewould recover. Having breakfasted and done up a portion of the cookedvenison for provisions during our journey, Ewen and I set off, leavingCroil to assist my brother in taking care of the mate. Andrew chargedus not to expend our powder on birds, or we might have shot as many aswe required. Every hour they were arriving in large flocks on their wayto still more northern regions, where they might enjoy the long summerday without interruption. I will not describe the journey, which wemanaged to accomplish in about six hours. Sandy, who came to meet us,reported that the men were behaving well, thankful for the food we hadsent them; but, as far as he could judge, it would be impossible to getthe boat round for the present, either over the ice or across the land.All hands therefore were ready to obey the directions Andrew had sentthem. While Ewen and I rested, they made up the loads each man was tocarry. As to launching the boat among the rocks which fringed that sideof the island, it was clearly impossible unless in the calmest weather,without the risk of her being knocked to pieces; for the sea continuallyrolled in huge masses of ice, which with thundering sound were shiveredinto fragments. It seemed surprising that we had escaped, when welooked at the spot where we had landed.
"We are all ready, and if you and Ewen think you can trudge back by theway you have come, we'll set out at once," said Sandy.
"All right," we answered, springing to our feet and taking our rifles,with a few articles--all the men would let us carry--we led the way.
The men, however, had not taken any of the shattered boat, or oars, orspars, and it would, therefore, be necessary to make another journey tobring them across. The other boat was turned bottom upmost, out of thereach of the highest tide, with the things we had to leave placed underher. We took longer to perform the journey back than we had occupied incoming, as the men, with their heavy loads, could not proceed as fast asEwen and I had done. On approaching the bay we looked out for Croil,whom we expected to see on the watch for us. He was nowhere visible.We shouted to give notice that we were near, but no reply reached us.
"He is probably in the cave assisting the doctor," observed Ewen. "Ihope the mate is not worse."
On getting near the shore, however, we saw my brother, who had just comeout of the cave. He waved to us to hasten on.
"Thank heaven you are come!" he said. "I am very anxious about youngCroil. He went away a couple of hours ago to collect drift-wood, andhas not returned. I could not leave the mate, who still continues in avery precarious condition, to look for him, and I fear that someaccident has happened; probably he has been attacked either by a walrusor a bear, and, if so, I fear that he will be added to our list ofcasualties."
"We must find him at all events," I answered. "Should he have beenattacked by a bear, we shall discover some traces which will show whathas happened to him."
The men, having deposited their loads, tired as they were, dispersed inall directions. Sandy, Ewen, and I went to the northward under thecliffs. Every moment I expected to see the mangled remains of the poorlad, or traces of his blood, should a bear have carried him off. Of onething we felt sure, that he would have kept as close as he could to thebeach, where he might hope to meet with drift-wood. Before long,however, our progress was stopped by cliffs which jutted out into thesea, though we saw that there was a continuation of the beach fartheron. We had, therefore, to climb up and try to find a way down again tothe level of the water. It was no easy task to climb the cliff, but weaccomplished it at last. We went on for some distance, but soprecipitous were the cliffs that it seemed impossible that we should beable to descend with any safety. Every now and then we peered overthem, and as I was doing so I thought I saw an object lying close to thebase some way on. I felt almost sure that it was a human being, whilenot
far from it was what looked like the wreck of a boat. That it waspoor Croil we could have little doubt, and that he had been killed by afall from above appeared too probable.
Sandy, who was of this opinion, told Ewen and me to wait while hehurried back to obtain a coil of rope which he had brought from theboat, as also the assistance of some of the other men should they havereturned. Ewen and I accordingly went on, and, carefully looking overthe cliff, to our sorrow discovered that it was indeed our poorshipmate. That he had fallen from such a height without being killedseemed impossible.
"Take care that we do not share his fate," I observed to Ewen, as I gotup to ascertain if there was any less precipitous part near at hand, bywhich we could descend without waiting for the rope.
As far as I could discover there were no marks on the edge of
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