Under the Great Bear

by Kirk Munroe

  CHAPTER XVII.

  IMPRISONED BY AN ICEBERG.

  The brief northern summer was nearly ended. Its days were growingshort and chill, its nights long and cold. The month of October waswell advanced, and flurries of snow heralded the approach of winter.Most of the Labrador fishing fleet had already sailed away, and the fewboats still left were preparing for a speedy departure. The laststeamer of the season had come and gone, and the few permanentresidents of the country were moving back from the coast into winterquarters. Great flocks of geese streamed southward, and with harshcries gave warning of the icy terrors that had driven them from theirArctic nesting places. Night after night the wonderful beauties of theaurora borealis were flashed across the northern heavens with everincreasing brilliancy. Every one predicted a hard winter, andeverything pointed to its early coming.

  Nearly two months had elapsed since the little schooner "Sea Bee,"manned by a couple of plucky lads, sailed out of Battle Harbour on atrading venture to the northern missions, and from that day no tidingshad been received concerning her. The few who remembered her,occasionally speculated as to what success she had met and why she hadnot put in ah appearance on her return voyage, but generally dismissedthe subject by saying that she must have been in too great a hurry toget south, as any one having a chance to leave that forsaken countrynaturally would be. But the "Sea Bee" had not gone to the southward,nor was there any likelihood of her doing so for many long months tocome.

  On one of the mildest of these October days, when the sunshine stillheld a trace of its summer warmth, a solitary figure stood on the crestof a bald headland, some hundreds of miles to the north of BattleHarbour, gazing wistfully out over the lead-coloured waters that cameleaping and snarling towards the red rocks far beneath him. He had ongreat sea boots that stood sadly in need of mending, and was clad inheavy woollens, faded and worn, that showed many a rent and patch. Ashe leaned on the stout staff that had assisted him in climbing, hisfigure seemed bent as though by age, but when he lifted his, face,tanned brown by long exposure, the downy moustache on his upper lipproclaimed his youth. Altogether the change in his appearance was sogreat that his most intimate friend would hardly have recognised in himthe youth who had been called the best dressed man in the T. I. classof '99 a few months earlier. But the voice with which he finally brokethe silence of his long reverie was unmistakably that of Cabot Grant.

  A solitary figure stood on the crest of a bald headland.]

  "Heigh ho!" he sighed, as he cast a sweeping glance over the widespreadwaste of waters on which nothing floated save a few belated icebergs,and then inland over weary miles of desolate upland barrens, treeless,moss-covered, and painfully rugged. "It is tough luck to be shut uphere like birds in a cage, with no chance of the door being openedbefore next summer. It is tougher on Baldwin, though, than on me, andif he can stand it I guess I can. But I suppose I might as well begetting back or he will be worrying about me."

  Thus saying, Cabot picked up a canvas bag that lay at his feet andmoved slowly away.

  A very serious misfortune had befallen our lads, and for more than amonth the "Sea Bee," though still afloat and as sound as ever, had beenunable to move from the position she now occupied. After leavingBattle Harbour her voyage to the northward had not been more thanordinarily eventful, though subject to many and irritating delays. Notonly had there been adverse winds, but she had twice been stormboundfor days in harbours to which she had run for shelter. Then, too,White had insisted on stopping at every settlement that promised achance for trading, and had even run fifty miles up Hamilton Inlet withthe hope of finding customers for his goods at the half-breed villageof Rigoulette. But he had always been disappointed. Either his goodswere not in demand, or those who desired them had nothing to offer inexchange but fish, which he did not care to take. And always he wastold of a scarcity of food still farther north. So the voyage had beencontinued in that direction along a coast that ever grew wilder,grander, and more inhospitable.

  In the meantime Cabot was delighted at the opportunities thus given himfor getting acquainted with the country, and made short exploring tripsfrom every port at which they touched. From some of these he came backsadly bitten by the insect pests of the interior, and from others hebrought quantities of blueberries, pigeon berries that looked andtasted like wild cranberries, or yellow, raspberry-like "bake apples,"resembling the salmon berries of Alaska. Also he picked up numerousrock and mineral specimens that he afterwards carefully labelled.

  Finally, when they had passed the last fishing station of which theyhad any knowledge, and had only the missions to look forward to, theywere overtaken, while far out at sea, by a furious gale that sorelybuffeted them for twenty-four hours, and, in spite of their strenuousefforts, drove them towards the coast. The gale was accompanied bystinging sleet and blinding snow squalls, and at length blew with suchviolence that they could no longer show the smallest patch of canvas.

  In this emergency White constructed a sea anchor, by means of which hehoped to prolong their struggle for at least a few hours. It washardly got overboard, however, before a giant surge snapped its cableand hurled the little craft helplessly towards the crash and smotherwith which the furious seas warred against an iron coast.

  In addition to the other perils surrounding our lads, the gloom ofimpending night was upon them, and they could only dimly distinguishthe towering cliffs against which they expected shortly to be dashed.Both of them stood by the tiller, grimly silent, and using the last oftheir strength to keep their craft head on, for in the trough of thatawful sea she would have rolled over like a log. Neither of themflinched nor showed a sign of fear, though both fully realised the fateawaiting them.

  At last, with the send of a giant billow, the little schooner was flungbodily into the roaring whiteness, and, with hearts that seemed alreadyto have ceased their beating, the poor lads braced themselves for thefinal shock. To their unbounded amazement the "Sea Bee," instead ofdashing against the cliffs, appeared to pass directly into them asthough they were but shadows of a solid substance, and in anotherminute had shot, like an arrow from a bow, through a rift barely wideenough to afford her passage.

  As her stupefied crew slowly realised that a reprieve from death hadbeen granted at the last moment, they also became aware that they werein a place of absolute darkness, and, save for the muffled outside roarof furious seas, of absolute quiet. At the same time they were soexhausted after their recent prolonged struggle that they found barelystrength to get overboard an anchor. Then, careless of everythingelse, they tumbled into their bunks for the rest and sleep they sosadly needed.

  When they next awoke it was broad daylight, and their first move was tohasten on deck for a view of their surroundings. Their craft lay asmotionless as a painted ship, in the middle of a placid pool black as ahighland tarn. In no place was it more than a pistol shot in width,and it was enclosed by precipitous cliffs that towered hundreds of feetabove her. The schooner could not have been more happily located byone possessed of an absolute knowledge of the coast under the mostfavourable conditions, and that she should have come there as she hadwas nothing short of a miracle.

  Filled with thankfulness for their marvellous escape the lads gazedabout them curious to discover by what means they had gained this havenof refuge. On three sides they could see only the grim fronts ofinaccessible cliffs. On the fourth was a strip of beach and a cleftthrough which poured a plume-like waterfall white as a wreath of drivensnow.

  "Did we come in that way?" asked Cabot, pointing to this torrent ofsilver spray.

  "I suppose we must have," rejoined White soberly; "for I can't see anyother opening, and it certainly felt last night as though we weresailing over the brink of a dozen waterfalls. But let's get breakfast,for I'm as hungry as a wolf. Then there'll be time enough to find outhow we got in here, as well as how we are to get out again."

  After a hearty meal they got the dinghy overboard and started on a tourof exploration. Fi
rst they visited the beach and found a rude pathwayleading up beside the waterfall that promised exit from the basin to anactive climber.

  "In spite of all the wonderful happenings of last night I don't believewe came in that way," said Cabot.

  "No," laughed White, "the old 'Bee's' wings aren't quite strong enoughfor that yet, though there's no saying what she may do with practice."

  Satisfied that there was no outlet for a sailing craft in thisdirection, they pulled towards the opposite side of the basin, but notuntil they were within a few rods of its cliffs did they discover anopening which was so black with shadow that it had heretofore escapedtheir notice.

  "Here it is," cried Cabot, "though----"

  His speech was cut suddenly short, and for a moment he stared in silentamazement. The farther end of the passage was completely filled bywhat appeared a gigantic mass of white rock.

  "An iceberg!" exclaimed the young skipper, who was the first torecognise the true nature of the obstacle. "An iceberg driven in bythe gale and jammed. Now we are in a fix."

  "I should say as much," responded Cabot, "for there isn't space enoughto let a rowboat out, much less a schooner. No wonder this water is asstill as that in a corked bottle. What shall we do now?"

  "Wait until it melts, I suppose," replied White gloomily, "or until theoutside seas batter it away."

  So our lads had waited unhappily and impatiently for more than a month,and still the ice barrier was as immovable as ever. Also, as theweather was growing steadily cooler, its melting became less and lesswith each succeeding day.

  During this period of enforced imprisonment they had made severalexploring trips into the interior, but had failed to find trace ofhuman life; nor were they able to go far either north or south onaccount of impassable waterways. Neither could they discover anytimber from which to obtain firewood, and as the supply on the schoonerwas nearly exhausted their outlook for the future grew daily more andmore gloomy.

  For a while they had hoped to signal some passing vessel, and one orthe other of them made daily trips to the most prominent headland ofthe vicinity, where he kept a lookout for hours. But this also provedfruitless, for but two vessels had been sighted, and neither of thesepaid any attention to their signals.

  Thus the open season passed, and with the near approach of an Arcticwinter the situation of our imprisoned lads grew so desperate that theywere filled with the gloomiest forebodings.