Arctic Adventures
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the cliffsto show from whence he had fallen. Going on a little further I found anarrow ledge, which apparently sloped downwards. Very likely he hadattempted to make his way by this ledge to the shore. From its extremenarrowness I felt that it would be folly to trust myself to it, and thatI should probably fall as he had done.
While looking about I heard Ewen exclaim--
"He is moving, I saw him lift his hand!" He then shouted out: "Hullo!Croil, we are coming to help you."
It was a great relief to know that the lad was alive, though it made usstill more anxious for the return of Sandy. At last he appeared. Nowcame the question, Who should descend? It was a hazardous task. Sandyinsisted on going down, but I felt that I would much rather descend thanhave to hold the rope.
"No, no," said Sandy, "I'll trust you. I'll stick this stake into theground, and if you hold on to the upper end the rope will be firmenough."
While we were securing the rope as Sandy proposed, a man with anotherlength of rope came running towards us. It was fortunate he brought it,for the first was not sufficiently long to reach the bottom. Ourpreparations were speedily made, and Sandy, with the activity of asailor, sliding over the edge of the cliff, glided down by the ropeuntil he reached the spot where Croil lay. I fancied that I heard himshout out for help, so I told Ewen to hold on to the stake, and, takinghold of the rope, slid down as Sandy had done. I saw him, as I reachedthe bottom, supporting Croil in his arms.
"I did not want you to come, Hugh, but as you are here, you can help mein getting up the laddie. There is still life in him, but he has had ashaking which might have broken every bone in his body, though I cannotdiscover that any are broken. We must hoist him up gently, for hecannot bear any rough handling, that's certain."
I suggested that we should make a cradle from the wreck of the boatwhich had tempted Croil to try to reach the beach.
Sandy had some small line in his pocket; I also had another piece, andDick Black--the man who had come to our assistance--had brought a wholecoil, which he threw down to us. We soon formed a cradle, in which weplaced the lad, securing it to the end of the rope. We had, besidesthis, lines sufficient to enable me to stand below and assist to guideit in its ascent. Sandy then swarmed up to the top, and he and our twocompanions began to hoist away while I guided the cradle from below. Iwas thankful to see Croil at length safely placed on the top of thecliff. The rope was then let down, and making a bow line in which Icould sit, I shouted to the rest to haul away. I felt ratheruncomfortable as I found myself dangling in mid-air, for fear the ropeshould get cut by the rocks, but I reached the top without accident. Iwas thankful to find that Croil had come to himself, though unable todescribe how he had fallen.
"We must mark this spot, to come back for that wood; it will be aperfect god-send to us, for we shall want every scrap of fuel we canfind," I observed.
The cradle enabled us to carry Croil without difficulty to the cave,where my brother at once attended to him.
Wonderful as it seemed, not a bone in his body was broken, nor had hisspine received any injury, which Andrew at first thought might be thecase. He thus hoped that the lad might get round and in a short time beas well as ever. He was far more anxious about the mate, who stillremained in a precarious condition.
Supper over and a watch being set, we all lay down inside the cave, withour feet to the fire which blazed in front of it. And thus passed thethird night of our residence on the island.
CHAPTER FOUR.
Sandy and my brother had now become the real leaders of the party, asthe mate was too ill to issue orders. We speedily built a hut with sodsand stones, and roofed it with the boat's sails. It proved a far morecomfortable abode than the cavern. We also collected all the drift-woodwe could find, including that of the wrecked boat which had so nearlycost Croil his life. On examining the quantity, however, we saw that itwas utterly insufficient to last us through a winter. My brother,therefore, proposed that we should cut turf and dry it during thesummer, and advised that the hut should be much increased in size, withtwo outer chambers, by which the inner room could be approached and buta small quantity of cold air admitted. A lamp of walrus' blubber orbear's grease would be sufficient tor warm it at night, provided thatthe walls were thick enough to keep out the cold. Our stock of powderbeing small it was necessary to husband it with the greatest care, andwe therefore agreed to shoot only such animals as were necessary tosupply ourselves with food.
I killed three deer and a bear which one night paid us a visit, andSandy killed two walruses which he found asleep on the rocks. From theappearance of the ice Sandy hoped at length that he would be able tobring round the boat. For several days a huge mass had been seenfloating by, carried on apparently by a strong current, while that inthe bay had either melted or had been blown out by the wind. Heaccordingly set off with the boat's crew, carrying provisions forseveral days' consumption. Ewen and I meantime made our way northwardto explore the part of the island we had not yet visited. We saw thatit was of far greater extent than we had supposed, and that we shouldperhaps have to camp out two or three nights if we persevered in ourattempt.
As Andrew had charged us to return before nightfall we were about todirect our steps homewards, when Ewen's sharp eyes discovered a peculiarlooking mound at the top of a headland some distance to the northward.As it would not delay us more than an hour we hurried on. Below theheadland was a bay, on the shores of which we saw a hut. Could it beinhabited? If so we might meet with some one whose experience of thecountry would be of the greatest use. We were considerably disappointedon entering the hut to find it empty. It had apparently been for a longtime deserted. Without delay we climbed up the top of the headland. Weexamined the cairn carefully, and found that it was built round andcontained a bottle, on opening which I discovered a paper having a fewlines apparently written with the burnt end of a stick. They were inEnglish, but so nearly illegible that it was with difficulty I couldread them. What was my surprise when I made out the words--
"Left here by the whaler _Barentz_. Saw her drift out to sea, beset by ice. Fear that she was overwhelmed, and all on board perished. Spent the winter here. A sloop coming into the bay, hope to be taken off by her.
"David Ogilvy."
Here was a trace of my long-lost brother; what had since become of him?Had he got off in the sloop and returned to Europe, or had she beenlost? Had the former been the case, we should have heard of him beforewe sailed. We hurried eagerly back to discuss the subject with Andrew.It was dark before we reached the hut. We talked and talked, but couldarrive at no conclusion. Andrew feared for the worst. The boat had notarrived, indeed we scarcely expected to see her that day. Next daypassed by and she did not appear. Two more days elapsed. We wereconstantly on the look out for her. I proposed going over to try toascertain what had happened. The mate was getting somewhat better, andI took Andrew's place that he might go out and take some exercise whilein search of a deer. I was talking with Mr. Patterson, who spokehopefully of getting away before the winter commenced, when Ewen rushedinto the hut exclaiming--
"A sail, a sail! She's standing for the bay."
"Go and have a look at her," said Mr. Patterson; "I was sure we shouldget off before long."
I rushed down to the beach, where I found the rest of the partycollected, gazing at the approaching vessel.
She was the _Hardy Norseman_, trim and taut. There was no doubt aboutthe matter. On she came, gliding over the now smooth ocean. A shout ofjoy burst from our throats. All our troubles were over, as we thought.She stood fearlessly on, evidently piloted by one who knew the harbour,and at length came to an anchor. Her sails were furled immediately, anda boat approached the shore.
As she got nearer we saw that the boatswain was steering. His boat hadthen got off and fallen in with the ship. Such, indeed, he told us, ashe sprang on the beach, had been the case. Had he not done so she wouldhave passed on, supposing that we had all been lost; for, althoughsh
ort-handed, the captain had determined on prosecuting the fisheryuntil the weather compelled him to return.
Carrying the mate and Croil, who--as Andrew said--had turned the corner,we were soon on board, heartily welcomed by all hands. Our hut andstore of fuel were left for the benefit of any other unfortunate peoplewho might be cast on the island, but the meat and skins were, of course,carried with us.
As the sea was now open to the northward, we sailed slowly on, the boatsfrequently being sent in to shoot walruses or seals, of which vastquantities were seen on the rocks and floating ice. We were now off thecoast of Spitzbergen. Passing some islands, we pulled on shore inexpectation of obtaining some walruses. We had killed several, when wesaw among the rocks a number of eider ducks which had just laid theireggs. The first mate and boatswain, who were in command of the boats,ordered us to land with the boat-stretchers in our hands, when we