Under the Great Bear
Page 26
CHAPTER XXVI.
AN ELECTRICIAN IN THE WILDERNESS.
When Cabot threw himself down on that lounge he fully intended toremain awake, or at most to take only a series of short naps, alwaysholding himself in readiness to assist the sufferer on the oppositeside of the room. But exhausted nature proved too much for his goodintentions, and he had hardly lain down before he fell into a dead,dreamless sleep that lasted for many hours. When he next awoke it waswith a start, and he sat up bewildered by the strangeness of hisenvironment. Daylight was streaming in at the frost-covered windowsand the storm of the night before had evidently spent its fury.
Almost the first thing he saw was the tall form of his host bendingfeebly over the electric stove. His face was drawn with pain, and hewas so weak that he was compelled to support himself by grasping thetable with one hand while with the other he stirred the contents of asimmering kettle.
"Let me do that, sir!" cried Cabot, springing to his feet. "You arenot fit to be out of your bed, and I am perfectly familiar with themanagement of electrical cooking apparatus, though I don't know muchabout cooking itself."
The man hesitated a moment, and then permitted the other to lead himback to his bed, on which he sank with a groan. Here Cabot made him ascomfortable as possible before turning his attention to the stove. Onit he found two kettles, each having its own wire connections, in oneof which was boiling water while the other contained a meat stew. Onthe table was a box of tea, a bowl of sugar, and a plate heaped withhard bread. Finding other dishes in a cupboard, Cabot made a pot oftea, turned off the electric current, and served breakfast. Beforeeating a mouthful himself he prepared a bowl of broth for his patient,which the latter managed to swallow after many attempts and painfuleffort.
Cabot ate ravenously, and, after his meal, felt once more ready to faceany number of difficulties. First he went to the bedside of his hostand said:
"Now, Mr. Homolupus, I want to find out what is the trouble and what Ican do for you. Are you wounded, or just naturally ill?"
The man looked at his questioner for a moment, as though he were on thepoint of speaking. Then he seemed to change his mind, and, reachingfor a pencil and pad that lay close at hand, he wrote:
"I am shot in the chest."
"Who--I mean how----" began Cabot, and then, realising that hiscuriosity could well wait, he added: "But, with your permission, I willexamine the wound and see if there is anything I can do."
With this he sought and gently removed a blood-soaked bandage, therebydisclosing a sight so ghastly that it almost unnerved him. The woundwas so terrible, and the loss of blood from it had evidently been sogreat, that how even the giant frame of the man-wolf could havesurvived it was amazing. Having no knowledge of surgery, Cabot couldonly bathe and rebandage it. Then he said:
"Now, I am going to be your nurse, and you must lie perfectly stillwithout attempting to get up again until I give you leave."
Seeing an expression of dissent in the man's face, he continued:
"It's all right. I am under the greatest of obligations to you, and amonly too glad of a chance to pay some of it back. So I shall stayright here just as long as you need me. Fortunately I know somethingabout both electricity and machinery, having been educated at atechnical institute, so that I shall be able to manage very well withyour plant. But I do wish you could explain a few things to me. Isyour name really 'Homolupus'?"
The sufferer smiled and wrote on his pad:
"My name is Watson Balfour."
"My name is Watson Balfour."]
"Of London?" queried Cabot.
The man nodded.
"Is it possible that you can be Watson Balfour, the celebrated Englishelectrician, who is supposed to have been lost at sea some years ago?"
Again the man smiled and made a sign of assent.
For a moment Cabot stared, well nigh speechless with the wonder andexcitement of this discovery. Then he broke into a torrent ofexclamations and questions.
"Why, Mr. Balfour, I know you so well by reputation that you seem likean old friend. Your 'Handbook of Electricity' and your 'ComparativeVoltage' are text books at the Institute. The whole scientific worldmourned your supposed death. But how do you happen to be up here, andhow have you managed to establish an electric plant in this wilderness?Why are you masquerading as a man-wolf? How did you lose the power ofspeech? How did you become so severely wounded? Can't you tell mesome of these things?"
For answer Mr. Balfour wrote: "Perhaps, some time. Tell first how youcame here."
So Cabot, forced to curb for the present his own overpoweringcuriosity, sat down and told of all that had happened since thedeparture of the man-wolf from Locked Harbour. When he had finished hesaid:
"And now, I ought to go outside and see if I can discover any trace ofmy companions, who must be awfully cut up over my disappearance. Butdon't be uneasy, Mr. Balfour, I shan't go far, and whether I find themor not I shall certainly come back to stay just as long as you need me.I hope you will sleep while I am gone, and I wish you would promise notto leave your bed, or move more than is absolutely necessary, before myreturn."
When Cabot first stepped outside the shelter that had proved such ahaven of safety to him, he was dazzled by the brilliancy of the day.After becoming somewhat accustomed to the glare of sunlight onnew-fallen snow, he turned to see what sort of a house he had justleft. To his surprise there was no house; the only suggestion of onebeing two windows and a door set in a wall of rock that was built atthe base of a cliff.
"It is a cavern," thought Cabot, "and that is the reason the room is soeasily kept warm. Mighty good thing to have in this country,especially when it is lined with furs."
The snow lay unbroken, and there was no sign of the trail he had madethe night before. For a short distance, however, he could go in butone direction, for the only way out was through the narrow defile bywhich he had entered. At its mouth he found the wire over which he hadfallen, and thereby given notice of his approach by causing the ringingof an electric bell.
"When he heard it he turned on the lights," said Cabot to himself."It's a great scheme for scaring off Indians and attracting white men.I wonder if any other person ever found the place? What a marvellousthing my stumbling on it was, anyhow. Now, which way did I come?"
Gazing blankly at the surrounding chaos of snow-covered rocks, our ladcould form no idea of the route by which he had been led to that place,through the storm and darkness of the preceding night, nor of how hemight leave it.
"There is no use wandering aimlessly," he decided at length, "and I'lleither have to gain a bird's-eye view of the country or get Mr. Balfourto make me a map. To think that I should have discovered him, and hereof all places in the world. What a sensation it will make when I tellof it. Of course I shall do so, for I'll get out of this fix all rightsomehow. What a state of mind poor White must be in this morning. Iknow I should be in his place. He's all right, though, with Yim topull him through, and they'll make Indian Harbour easy enough. Then Ishall be reported lost, and after a while Mr. Hepburn will hear thenews. Wonder what he thinks has become of me anyhow? I am followingout instructions, and wintering in Labrador fast enough. Only I don'tseem to have much time to investigate mining properties, and of courseit's no use trying to find 'em buried under feet of snow. Perhaps Mr.Balfour has discovered some while roaming around the country as aman-wolf. How absurd to think of 'Voltage' Balfour as a man-wolf!Wonder why he did it? How I wish he could talk! Wonder why he can't?"
While thus cogitating, Cabot had also been climbing a nearby eminencethat promised a view of the outlying country, but from it he could seenothing save other hills rising still higher and an unbroken waste ofsnow.
"It's no use," he sighed. "I don't believe I could find them, even ifI had plenty of time. As it is, I don't dare stay away from Mr.Balfour any longer. I'm afraid he's a very sick man, with a slimchance of ever pulling through."
So Cabot, after an absence
of several hours, turned back towards thesnug shelter so providentially provided for him, and for which he wasjust then more grateful than he could express. He was thinking of themany wonders of the place when he reached its door; but, as he openedit and stepped inside the room, he was greeted by a greater surprisethan he had yet encountered. Nothing was changed about the interior,and the wounded man lay as Cabot had left him, but with the appearanceof the latter he exclaimed:
"Thank God, dear lad, that you have come back to me! It seemed asthough I should go crazy if left alone a minute longer."
Cabot stared in amazement. "Is it a miracle?" he finally asked, "andhas your speech been restored to you, or have you been able to speakall the time?"
"I have been able, but not willing," was the reply. "I had thought todie without speaking to a human being. I even avoided my fellows,believing myself sufficient unto myself. But God has punished myarrogance and shown me my weakness. Until you came no stranger hasever set foot within this dwelling, to none have I spoken, and not evento you did I intend to speak, but with your going my folly becameplain. I feared you might never return; the horror of living alone,and the greater horror of dying alone, swept over me. Then I prayedfor you to come. I promised to speak as soon as you were withinhearing. Every moment since then I have watched for you and longed foryour coming as a dying man longs for the breath of life. Promise thatyou will not leave me again."
"I have already promised, and now I repeat, that I will not leave youso long as you have need of me," replied Cabot. "But tell me----"
"I will tell you everything," interrupted the wounded man, "but firstyou must look after the dynamo. It has stopped, and if you cannot setit going again we must both perish."