CHAPTER TEN.
A SKETCHER IN IMMINENT DANGER. DIFFICULTIES INCREASE, AND ARE OVERCOMEAS USUAL.
The first night on Home-in-sight Island was not so undisturbed as mighthave been expected. The noisy gulls did indeed go to sleep at theirproper bed-time, which, by the way, they must have ascertained byinstinct, for the sun could be no certain guide, seeing that he shoneall night as well as all day, and it would be too much to expect thatgulls had sufficient powers of observation to note the great luminary'sexact relation to the horizon. Polar bears, like the Eskimo, hadforsaken the spot. All nature, indeed, animate and inanimate, favouredthe idea of repose when the explorers lay down to sleep on a mossy couchthat was quite as soft as a feather bed, and much more springy.
The cause of disturbance was the prolonged absence of Alf Vandervell.That enthusiastic naturalist's failure to appear at supper was nothinguncommon. His non-appearance when they lay down did indeed cause somesurprise, but little or no anxiety, and they all dropped into a soundsleep which lasted till considerably beyond midnight. Then the Captainawoke with a feeling of uneasiness, started up on one elbow, yawned, andgazed dreamily around. The sun, which had just kissed his hand to thedisappointed horizon and begun to re-ascend the sky, blinded the Captainwith his beams, but did not prevent him from observing that Alf's placewas still vacant.
"Very odd," he muttered, "Alf didn't use to--to--w'at's 'is name in--this--way--"
The Captain's head dropped, his elbow relaxed, and he returned to theland of Nod for another half-hour.
Again he awoke with a start, and sat upright.
"This'll never do," he exclaimed, with a fierce yawn, "something _must_be wrong. Ho! Benjy!"
"Umph!" replied the boy, who, though personally light, was a heavysleeper.
"Rouse up, Ben, Alf's not come back. Where did you leave him?"
"Don' know, Burrerface saw 'im las'--." Benjy dropped off with a sigh,but was re-aroused by a rough shake from his father, who lay close tohim.
"Come, Ben, stir up Butterface! We must go look for Alf."
Butterface lay on the other side of Benjy, who, only half alive to whathe was doing, raised his hand and let it fall heavily on the negro'snose, by way of stirring him up.
"Hallo! massa Benjamin! You's dreamin' drefful strong dis mornin'."
"Yer up, ol' ebony!" groaned the boy.
In a few minutes the whole camp was roused; sleep was quickly banishedby anxiety about the missing one; guns and rifles were loaded, and aregular search-expedition was hastily organised. They started off ingroups in different directions, leaving the Eskimo women in charge ofthe camp.
The Captain headed one party, Chingatok another, and Leo with Benjy athird, while a few of the natives went off independently, in couples oralone.
"I was sure Alf would get into trouble," said Benjy, as he trottedbeside Leo, who strode over the ground in anxious haste. "That way hehas of getting so absorbed in things that he forgets where he is, won'tmake him a good explorer."
"Not so sure of that, Ben," returned Leo; "he can discover things thatmen who are less absorbed, like you, might fail to note. Let us goround this hillock on separate sides. We might pass him if we wenttogether. Keep your eyes open as you go. He may have stumbled over oneof those low precipices and broken a leg. Keep your ears cocked also,and give a shout now and then."
We have said that the island was a low one, nevertheless it wasextremely rugged, with little ridges and hollows everywhere, likeminiature hills and valleys. Through one of these latter Benjy hurried,glancing from side to side as he went, like a red Indian on thewar-path--which character, indeed, he thought of, and tried to imitate.
The little vale did not, however, as Leo had imagined, lead round thehillock. It diverged gradually to the right, and ascended towards thehigher parts of the island. The path was so obstructed by rocks andboulders which had evidently been at one time under the pressure of ice,that the boy could not see far in any direction, except by mounting oneof these. He had not gone far when, on turning the corner of a cliffwhich opened up another gorge to view, he beheld a sight which causedhim to open mouth and eyes to their widest.
For there, seated on an eminence, with his back to a low precipice, notmore than three or four hundred yards off, sat the missing explorer,with book on knees and pencil in hand--sketching; and there, seated onthe top of the precipice, looking over the edge at the artist, skulked ahuge Polar bear, taking as it were, a surreptitious lesson in drawing!The bear, probably supposing Alf to be a wandering seal, had dogged himto that position just as Benjy Vane discovered him, and then, findingthe precipice too high for a leap perhaps, or doubting the character ofhis intended victim, he had paused in uncertainty on the edge.
The boy's first impulse was to utter a shout of warning, for he had nogun wherewith to shoot the brute, but fear lest that might precipitatean attack restrained him. Benjy, however, was quick-witted. He sawthat the leap was probably too much even for a Polar bear, and that thenature of the ground would necessitate a detour before it could get atthe artist. These and other thoughts passed through his brain like thelightning flash, and he was on the point of turning to run back and givethe alarm to Leo, when a rattling of stones occurred behind him--justbeyond the point of rocks round which he had turned. In the tension ofhis excited nerves he felt as if he had suddenly become red hot. Couldthis be another bear? If so, what was he to do, whither to fly? Amoment more would settle the question, for the rattle of stonescontinued as the steps advanced. The boy felt the hair rising on hishead. Round came the unknown monster in the form of--a man!
"Ah, Benjy, I--"
But the appearance of Benjy's countenance caused Leo to stop abruptly,both in walk and talk. He had found out his mistake about sending theboy round the hillock, and, turning back, had followed him.
"Ah! look there," said Benjy, pointing at the _tableau vivant_ on thehill-top.
Leo's ready rifle leaped from his shoulder to his left palm, and a grimsmile played on his lips, for long service in a volunteer corps had madehim a good judge of distance as well as a sure and deadly shot.
"Stand back, Benjy, behind this boulder," he whispered. "I'll lean onit to make more certain."
He was deliberately arranging the rifle while speaking, but never forone instant took his eye off the bear, which still stood motionless,with one paw raised, as if petrified with amazement at what it saw. Asfor Alf, he went on intently with his work, lifting and lowering hiseyes continuously, putting in bold dashes here, or tender touches there;holding out the book occasionally at arm's length to regard his work,with head first on one side, then on the other, and, in short, goingthrough all those graceful and familiar little evolutions of artisticprocedure which arouse one's home feelings so powerfully everywhere--even in the Arctic regions! Little did the artist know who was hisuninvited pupil on that sunny summer night!
With one knee resting on a rock, and his rifle on the boulder, Leo tooka steady, somewhat lengthened aim, and fired. The result wasstupendous! Not only did the shot reverberate with crashing echoesamong surrounding cliffs and boulders, but a dying howl from the bearburst over the island, like the thunder of a heavy gun, and went boomingover the frozen sea. No wonder that the horrified Alf leapt nearly hisown height into the air and scattered his drawing-materials right andleft like chaff. He threw up his arms, and wheeled frantically roundjust in time to receive the murdered bear into his very bosom! Theyrolled down a small slope together, and then, falling apart, lay proneand apparently dead upon the ground.
You may be sure that Leo soon had his brother's head on his knee, andwas calling to him in an agony of fear, quite regardless of the factthat the bear lay at his elbow, giving a few terrific kicks as its hugelife oozed out through a bullet-hole in its heart, while Benjy, halfweeping with sympathy, half laughing with glee, ran to a neighbouringpool to fetch water in his cap.
A little of the refreshing liquid dashed on his face and poured down histhroa
t soon restored Alf, who had only been stunned by the fall.
"What induced you to keep on sketching all night?" asked Leo, after thefirst explanations were over.
"All night?" repeated Alf in surprise, "have I been away all night?What time is it?"
"Three o'clock in the morning at the very least," said Leo. "The sun ispretty high, as you might have seen if you had looked at it."
"But he never looked at it," said Benjy, whose eyes were not yet quitedry, "he never looks at anything, or thinks of anything, when he goessketching."
"Surely you must allow that at least I look at and think of my work,"said Alf, rising from the ground and sitting down on the rock from whichhe had been so rudely roused; "but you are half right, Benjy. The sunwas at my back, you see, hid from me by the cliff over which the beartumbled, and I had no thoughts for time, or eyes for nature, except theportion I was busy with--by the way, where is it?"
"What, your sketch?"
"Ay, and the colours. I wouldn't lose these for a sight of the Poleitself. Look for them, Ben, my boy, I still feel somewhat giddy."
In a few minutes the sketch and drawing-materials were collected,undamaged, and the three returned to camp, Alf leaning on Leo's arm. Onthe way thither they met the Captain's party, and afterwards the bandled by Chingatok. The latter was mightily amused by the adventure, andcontinued for a considerable time afterwards to upheave his hugeshoulders with suppressed laughter.
When the whole party was re-assembled the hour was so late, and they hadall been so thoroughly excited, that no one felt inclined to sleepagain. It was resolved, therefore, at once to commence the operationsof a new day. Butterface was set to prepare coffee, and the Eskimosbegan breakfast with strips of raw blubber, while steaks of Leo's bearwere being cooked.
Meanwhile Chingatok expressed a wish to see the drawing which had sonearly cost the artist his life.
Alf was delighted to exhibit and explain it.
For some time the giant gazed at it in silence. Then he rested hisforehead in his huge hand as if in meditation.
It was truly a clever sketch of a surpassingly lovely scene. In theforeground was part of the island with its pearl-grey rocks, red-brownearth, and green mosses, in the midst of which lay a calm pool, like theisland's eye looking up to heaven and reflecting the brightindescribable blue of the midnight sky. Further on was a mass of coldgrey rocks. Beyond lay the northern ice-pack, which extended in chaoticconfusion away to the distant horizon, but the chaos was somewhatrelieved by the presence of lakelets which shone here and there over itssurface like shields of glittering azure and burnished gold.
"Ask him what he thinks of it," said Leo to Anders, a little surprisedat Chingatok's prolonged silence.
"I cannot speak," answered the giant, "my mind is bursting and my heartis full. With my finger I have drawn faces on the snow. I have seenmen put wonderful things on flat rocks with a piece of stone, butthis!--this is my country made little. It looks as if I could walk init, yet it is flat!"
"The giant is rather complimentary," laughed Benjy, when this wastranslated; "to my eye your sketch is little better than a daub."
"It is a daub that causes me much anxiety," said the Captain, who nowlooked at the drawing for the first time. "D'you mean to tell me, Alf,that you've been true to nature when you sketched that pack?"
"As true as I could make it, uncle."
"I'll answer for its truth," said Leo, "and so will Benjy, for we bothsaw the view from the top of the island, though we paid little heed toit, being too much occupied with Alf and the bear at the time. The packis even more rugged than he has drawn it, and it extends quite unbrokento the horizon."
The Captain's usually hopeful expression forsook him for a little as hecommented on his bad fortune.
"The season advances, you see," he said, "and it's never very long atthe best. I had hoped we were done with this troublesome `sea ofancient ice,' but it seems to turn up everywhere, and from pastexperience we know that the crossing of it is slow work, as well ashard. However, we mustn't lose heart. `Nebber say die,' as Butterfaceis fond of remarking."
"Yis, Massa, nebber say die, but allers say `lib, to de top ob yourbent.' Dems my 'pinions w'en dey's wanted. Also `go a-hid.' Dat's agrand sent'ment--was borned 'mong de Yankees, an' I stoled it w'en Ileft ole Virginny."
"What says Chingatok?" asked the Captain of the Eskimo, who was stillseated with the sketch on his knees in profound meditation.
"Blackbeard has trouble before him," answered the uncompromising giant,without removing his eyes from the paper. "There," he said, pointing tothe pack, "you have three days' hard work. After that three days' easyand swift work. After that no more go on. Must come back."
"He speaks in riddles, Anders. What does he mean by the three days ofhard work coming to an end?"
"I mean," said Chingatok, "that the ice was loose when I came to thisisland. It is now closed. The white men must toil, toil, toil--veryslow over the ice for three days, then they will come to smooth ice,where the dogs may run for three days. Then they will come to anotherisland, like this one, on the far-off side of which there is no ice--nothing but sea, sea, sea. Our kayaks are gone," continued the giant,sadly, "we must come back and travel many days before we find things tomake new ones."
While he was speaking, Captain Vane's face brightened up.
"Are you sure of what you say, Chingatok?"
"Chingatok is sure," replied the Eskimo quietly.
"Then we'll conquer our difficulties after all. Come, boys, let's wasteno more time in idle talk, but harness the dogs, and be off at once."
Of course the party had to travel round the island, for there wasneither ice nor snow on it. When the other side was reached the realdifficulties of the journey were fully realised. During the whole ofthat day and the next they were almost continuously engaged in draggingthe sledges over masses of ice, some of which rose to thirty feet abovethe general level. If the reader will try to imagine a very small antor beetle dragging its property over a newly macadamised road, he willhave a faint conception of the nature of the work. To some extent thedogs were a hindrance rather than a help, especially when passing overbroken fragments, for they were always tumbling into holes and cracks,out of which they had to be dragged, and were much given to ventingtheir ill-humour on each other, sometimes going in for a free fight, inthe course of which they tied their traces into indescribable knots, anddrove their Eskimo masters furious. On such occasions the whips--bothlash and handle--were applied with unsparing vigour until the creatureswere cowed.
Danger, also, as well as toil, was encountered during the journey. Onthe evening of the second day the sledge driven by Oolichuk diverged alittle from the line of march towards what seemed an easier passage overthe hummocks. They had just gained the top of an ice-block, which,unknown to the driver, overhung its base. When the dogs reached theedge of the mass, it suddenly gave way. Down went the team with aunited howl of despair. Their weight jerked the sledge forward, anothermass of the ice gave way, and over went the whole affair. In the fallthe lashings broke, and Oolichuk, with several of his kindred, includingpoor little Oblooria, went down in a shower of skins, packages, bags,and Eskimo cooking utensils.
Fortunately, they dropped on a slope of ice which broke their fall, and,as it were, shunted them all safely, though violently, to the lowerlevel of the pack.
Beyond a few scratches and bruises, no evil resulted from this accidentto these hardy natives of the north.
That night they all encamped, as on the previous night, in the midst ofthe pack, spreading their skins and furs on the flattest ice they couldfind, and keeping as far from overhanging lumps as possible.
"What does Blackbeard mean by coming here?" asked Chingatok of Anders,as they lay side by side, gazing up at the blue sky awaiting sleep. "Wecannot swim over the sea, and we have no boats."
"I don't know," answered the interpreter. "Our chief is a wonderfulman. He does things that seem to b
e all wrong, but they turn out mostlyto be all right."
"Does he ever speak of a Great Spirit?" asked the giant in a solemntone.
"Not to me," replied the other, "but I hear him sometimes speaking tohis little boy about his God."
"Then he must know his God," returned Chingatok. "Has he seen him--spoken to him?"
Anders was a good deal surprised as well as puzzled by the questions putby his new friend. His extremely commonplace mind had never beenexercised by such ideas. "I never asked him about that," he said, "andhe never told me. Perhaps he will tell you if you ask him."
The interpreter turned on his side with a sigh and went to sleep. Thegiant lay on his back gazing long and steadily with a wistful look atthe unbroken vault of sky, whose vast profundity seemed to thrust himmercilessly back. As he gazed, a little cloud, light as a puff ofeider-down, and golden as the sun from which its lustre came, floatedinto the range of his vision. He smiled, for the thought that light maysuddenly arise when all around seems blank gave his inquiring spiritrest, and he soon joined the slumbering band who lay upon the ice aroundhim.
According to Chingatok's prophecy, on the third day the fagged and wearydiscoverers surmounted their first difficulty, and came uponcomparatively smooth ice, the surface of which resembled hard-troddensnow, and was sufficiently free from obstructing lumps to admit of rapidsledge travelling. It was late when they reached it, but as they couldnow all sit on the sledges and leave the hard work to the dogs, theleader resolved to continue the advance without resting.
"It's time enough to stop when we're stopped," he remarked to Leo, whilemaking preparations to start. "We will sleep at the first obstructionwe meet with, if it's a sufficiently troublesome one. See that thethings are well lashed on all the sledges, Alf. Remember that I holdyou responsible for lost articles."
"And what am I responsible for, father?" asked Benjy with a pert look.
"For keeping out of mischief, Ben. That's the most I can expect ofyou."
"You are only a sort of negative blessing to us, you see, Benjy," saidAlf, as he stooped to tighten a rope. "It's not so much what you do, aswhat you don't do, that rejoices us."
"I'm glad of that," retorted the boy, arranging himself comfortably onhis father's sledge, "because I won't do anything at all for some hoursto come, which ought to fill you all with perfect felicity. Awake me,Leo, if we chance to upset."
"Now then, all ready?" cried the Captain. "Off you go, then--clap onall sail!"
Crack went the mighty whips, howl went the dogs, and the sledges weresoon skimming over the sea at the rate of ten miles an hour. Of coursethey did not keep that pace up very long. It became necessary to restat times, also, to give the dogs a little food. When this latterprocess had been completed, the teams became so lively that they triedto runaway.
"Let them run," said the Captain to Leo.
"And help them on," added Benjy.
Leo took the advice of both, applied the lash, and increased the speedso much that the sledge swung from side to side on the smooth places,sometimes catching on a lump of ice, and all but throwing out itsoccupants. The Eskimos entered into the spirit of their leaders. Theyalso plied their lashes, and, being more dexterous than Leo, soonconverted the journey into a race, in which Chingatok--his giant armflourishing an appropriately huge whip--was rapidly coming to the frontwhen a tremendous shout in the rear caused them to pull up. Lookingback, Alf's sledge was seen inverted and mixed, as it were, with theteam, while Alf himself and his Eskimo friends were sprawling around onthe ice. No damage was done to life or limb, but a sledge-runner hadbeen partially broken, and could not be mended,--so said Oolichuk--inless than an hour.
"This, then," said the Captain, "is our first obstruction, so here wewill make our beds for the night."
The Giant of the North: Pokings Round the Pole Page 11
