Billy Topsail, M.D.: A Tale of Adventure With Doctor Luke of the Labrador

by Norman Duncan

  CHAPTER XL

  _In Which Toby Farr Falls in the Water, and, Being Soaked to the Skin, Will Freeze Solid in Half an Hour, in the Frosty Dusk of the Approaching Night, Unless a Shift of Dry Clothes is Found, a Necessity Which Sends Jonathan Farr and Billy Topsail Hunting for Dead Men_

  Through all this black confusion and bitter hardship Billy Topsail andArchie Armstrong wandered with the others of the men of the _Rough andTumble_. They suffered, despaired, hoped, despaired again--but foughtdesperately for their lives as partners. When Archie wanted to give wayto his overwhelming desire for sleep, Billy cuffed and beat him intowakefulness and renewed courage; and when Billy, worn out and numb withcold, entertained the despair that assaulted him, Archie gathered hisfaculties and encouraged him. Had either been alone on the floe, it isprobable that he would have perished; but both together, devoted to eachother, resolved to help each other, each watchful of the other, eachinspired by the other's need--fighting thus as partners in peril, theywere as well off, in point of vitality and determination, as any man onthe floe. Afraid? Yes, they were afraid--that is to say, each perceivedthe peril he was in, knew that his life hung in the balance, and wishedwith all his might to live; but neither boy whimpered in a cowardly way.

  Coming on dusk of that day, the boys fell in for the last time with oldJonathan Farr. Jonathan had Toby by the scruff of the neck and was justsetting him on his feet by a broken crust of snow. Toby was wide awakethen. And he was dripping wet to the waist--near to the armpits. And hewas frightened.

  "I falled in," said he. "I--I stumbled."

  In that wind and frost it was death. The lad was doomed. And it was buta matter of minutes.

  "Is you--is you wet through, Toby?" Jonathan asked, blankly.

  "I is, sir."

  Jonathan drew off a mitt and felt of the lad's clothes from his calvesto his waist.

  "Wet through!" said he. "Oh, dear me!"

  "I'm soppin' t' the skin."

  "Jus' drippin' wet!"

  "I'm near froze," Toby complained. And he chilled. And his teethclicked. "I wisht I had a shift o' clothes," said he.

  "I wisht you had!" said Jonathan.

  Billy Topsail got to windward of Jonathan to speak his mind in the oldman's ear. It seemed to Billy that Toby's case was hopeless. The ladwould freeze. There was no help for it. And the sooner his suffering wasover--the better.

  "Let un die," Billy pleaded.

  Jonathan shook his head and flashed at Billy. Yet Billy had spokenkindness and plain wisdom. But Jonathan was in a rage with him. Billyheard his icicles rattle. And Jonathan glared in wrath through the whitefringe of his brows.

  "Go to!" he exclaimed.

  "My pants is froze stiff!" said Toby in amazement. "That's comical! Ican't move me legs." And then he whimpered with pain and misery andfear. "I'll freeze stiff!" said he. "I'll die!"

  It was coming fast.

  "You can't save un," Billy insisted, in Jonathan's ear. "He'll freezeafore dark. Let un go."

  "I'll never give up," Jonathan protested.

  "I'm awful mis'able, gran'pa," said Toby. "What'll I do now?"

  "Ah, have mercy!" Billy begged. "Let un slip away quick an' be gone."

  Jonathan peered around.

  "Mus' be some dead men, Billy," said he, "lyin' around here somewheres."

  Dead men enough in the drifts!

  "More than a hundred," said Archie. "I counted a hundred and ninethrough the day."

  "I'll find one," said Jonathan.

  "No time, Jonathan."

  "They're lyin' handy. I fell over Jack Brace somewheres near here."

  "Night's closin'," said Billy.

  "No time t' lose," Jonathan agreed.

  "Speed then!" Billy exclaimed. "He'll freeze fast afore you find one."

  "Guard the lad," said Jonathan. "I'll not be long. Try his temper. He'llfight if you tease un."

  With that, then, old Jonathan Farr ran off to dig a dead man from thedrifts. The boys could not see him in the snow. All this while the windwas biting and pushing and choking them still--the snow was mixed withthe first dusk. Toby was shivering then--cowering from the wind, headdown. And he was dull. His head nodded. He swayed in the wind--caughthis feet; and he jerked himself awake--and nodded and swayed again.Billy Topsail thought it a pity and a wrong to rouse him. Yet both boysturned to keep him warm.

  Toby must have the life kept in him, they thought, until his grandfathergot back. And they cuffed him and teased him until his temper was hot,poor lad, and he fought them in a passion--stumbling at them, hamperedby his frozen clothes, and striking at them with his stiff arms and icyfists.

  Jonathan came then.

  "I can't find no dead men," he panted. It was hard for him to breast thewind. He was gasping with haste and fear. "I've hunted," said he, "an' Ican't find no dead men."

  "They're lyin' thick hereabouts," said Billy.

  "They're all covered up. I can't find un."

  "Did you kick the drifts?" Archie asked. "We've strayed wide," saidJonathan. "I can't find no dead men. An' I can't walk well no more."

  "Watch the lad," said Billy. "I'll try my hand."

  Toby was lying down. Jonathan caught him up from the ice and held him inhis arms.

  "Quick!" he cried. "He've fell asleep. Ah, he's freezin'!"

  It was coming dark fast. There was no time to waste in the gale that wasblowing. The frost was putting Toby to sleep. Billy sped. He searchedthe drifts like a dog for a dead man. And soon he had luck. He foundLong Jerry Cuff, of Providence Arm, a chunk of ice, poor man!--lying ina cuddle, arms folded and knees drawn up, like a child snuggled in bed.Long Jerry had been in the water, soaked to the skin, and he was solidand useless. And then Billy came on a face and a fur cap in a drift ofsnow. It was George Hunt, of Bullet Bight, with whom Billy had oncesailed, in fishing weather, to Thumb-and-Finger of the Labrador.

  Long Jerry was lying flat on his back with his arms flung out and hislegs spread. And he was frozen fast to the floe. Billy could not budgehim. No. Billy caught him by the head and lifted--he was stiff as aplank; and Billy failed. And Billy took him by the foot and pried a legloose--and ripped at it with all his might; and again he failed. Solidas stone! They must all have been solid like that. And then Billy knewthat it was no use to try any more--that they could not strip theclothes from a dead man if they had a dead man to strip.

  And then he went disconsolate to Jonathan.