Blue Envelope

by Roy J. Snell

  CHAPTER XII

  "WHAT IS THAT?"

  When the man had gone, Phi sat down upon an up-ended ice-cake to restand think. His logical course was evident enough; to wait for perhapshalf an hour, allowing the man, who would doubtless be able to overtakehis guide, to get a sufficient distance ahead to prevent any furtherunpleasant encounters. Still, he was glad now to have his rifle, smallas it was. He had brought only a few cartridges for it, as they werean added weight. These had been spilled from his pocket in thescuffle, but by a diligent search he was able to find five. He wasabout to abandon the search when, with an exclamation of astonishment,he sprang forward, and bending, picked up an envelope.

  "The blue envelope," he exclaimed. "My blue envelope. He must be thebearded miner the girls told me about. It was lucky he tried toassassinate me after all."

  The envelope had been torn open, but the letter, though blurred withgrime and dirt, was still in it. With eager fingers he pulled it out.

  "Couldn't read our cipher, so he was going to Nome for help, I reckon,"he muttered. "All I've got to say is, it's lucky he lost it and Ifound it."

  He read the missive hastily, then a light of hope shone in his eye.

  "If only I can make it back to the American shore," he exulted."Rover, old boy, get back on your job. We're going to the islands."

  Hopefully he hurried forward. But they had tarried too long, for, nota hundred rods from their starting point, they came upon a broad, darkbreak in the floe, such a break as no draw-bridge of ice would everspan.

  "And, like the other, it's endless," Phi groaned as his eye swept theline from left to right and from right to left again; then he sat downto think.

  A half hour before this Lucile had said to Marian: "Listen, I think Ihear a dog bark."

  They listened and the bark came to them very distinctly.

  "Is it Rover, or does it come from the island?" asked Lucile.

  "I can't tell," whispered Marian.

  For some time they listened. When at last they prepared to resumetheir journey, Lucile glanced upward again. Then a cry ofconsternation escaped her lips; the fog had thickened; the stars werelost to them. They were again adrift on the trackless floe withoutcompass or guide.

  At the moment when Phi sat down to think, they were just coming insight of that same break in the floe, on the side of which he sat.They were not a mile apart, but the distance had as well been a hundredmiles as, in this labyrinth of ice-floes, no person finds another, and,as it turned out later, Phi took the trail to the left and they the oneto the right.

  Why the two girls chose to travel to the right along the break, theycould not have told, nor why they traveled at all, unless becausemotion quieted their nerves and served to allay their fears. Perhapsthere was something of Providence in it. Certainly it did bring them abit of good fortune.

  Lucile had rounded a gigantic ice-pile when suddenly she grippedMarian's arm.

  "What's this?" she exclaimed.

  A brown object lay some distance ahead of them. With bated breathsthey crept cautiously forward; it might be a white bear or walrus.

  Suddenly Marian threw up her head and laughed. "It's only a kiak.Some Eskimo has left it on the ice and the floe has carried it away."

  "May be a valuable find. Let's hurry," exclaimed Lucile.

  Breaking into a run, they soon reached its side.

  "Let's explore it!" whispered Marian. "You take the forecastle andI'll take the after-cabin," she laughed, as she thrust her arm into theopen space toward the stern of the kiak.

  "Why, there is something there!" she exclaimed.

  "Something here, too!" answered Lucile excitedly, as her slender whitehand tugged away at a bundle which had been thrust into the prow of theboat.

  "It's like going through your stocking Christmas morning!" laughedMarian, for the moment quite forgetting their dilemma in the excitementof discovery.

  Marian drew forth a large sealskin sack. It was heavy and was tiedtightly at the mouth. It gave forth a strange plop as she turned itover.

  "Some sort of liquid," she announced. "Probably seal-oil."

  With difficulty she untied the strings and opened the sack. Thenquickly she pinched her nose. "Whew! What a smell!"

  "Let's see," said Lucile, dropping the bundle she had just draggedforth. "Yes, it's seal-oil. That's a good find."

  "Why? We can't use that stuff. It must be at least a year old androtten. Talk about limburger cheese! Whew!"

  She quickly tied the sack up again.

  "Well," said Lucile, "we probably won't want to use it for food, butwhite people as fine-blooded as we have been compelled to. It's betterthan starving. But I was thinking about a fire. If we ever find anyfuel where we're going--wherever that is--" she smiled a trifleuncertainly, "we'll need some oil to help start the fire if the fuel isdamp, as most driftwood is."

  "Driftwood? When do we go ashore?" laughed Marian.

  "It's well to be prepared for anything," smiled Lucile. "Let's seewhat's in my prize package."

  Marian leaned forward eagerly while Lucile untied a leather thong.

  "Deerskins!" she cried exultantly. "Four of them! Enough for asleeping-bag! And wrapped in a sealskin square which will protect usfrom the damp. I believe," she said thoughtfully, "that this nativemust have been planning a little trip up the coast, and if he was theremust be other useful things in our ark, for an Eskimo never venturesfar without being prepared for every emergency."

  Once more they bent over the kiak, each one to search her corner.

  "Another sack!" cried Lucile; "a hunting sack, with matches wrapped inoiled sealskin, a butcher knife, some skin-rope, a pair of boola ballswith the strings, a fish line with hook and sinker; two big needlesstuck in a bit of canvas. That's about all, but it's a lot."

  "I've found a little circular wooden box," said Marian. "More food, Iguess; probably the kind you can't eat without gagging. No," shecried, after a moment, "here's a big square of tea--the Russian kind,all pressed hard into a brick. There's enough for a dozen tea parties.Oh, joy! here are three pilot biscuits!"

  "Pilot biscuits!" Lucile danced about on the ice.

  These large brown disks of hardtack, so often despised, would not havebeen half so welcome had they been solid gold.

  "Well, I guess that's about all," but Marian smiled. "I'm hungryalready, but we daren't eat anything yet. We'll save these and eat thedeer meat first that we brought along."

  "We'll be pretty awful hungry, I am afraid," said Lucile, "before weleave the ocean. But what worries me just now is a drink. Do yousuppose we could find an ice-pool of fresh water?"

  A short search found them the desired pool, and each drank to herheart's content. They then sat down upon the top of the kiak for abrief consultation. After talking matters over they decided that thebest thing they could do was to remain by the kiak until the fogcleared. It was true that the kiak, carefully managed, would carrythem across the break in the floe, but, once across, they would be nobetter off than before, since they had no way of determiningdirections. Furthermore, neither of them had ever handled a kiak andthey knew all too well what a spill meant in that stinging water.

  "Guess we'd better stick right here," said Marian, and Lucile agreed.

  "Now," suggested Lucile, "we'll put your middy on a paddle and set itup as a sign of distress; then, since the ice isn't piling, I think wemight both sleep a little while."

  The flag was soon hoisted, and the girls, with the sealskin squarebeneath them, lay down under the deerskins and attempted to sleep. Butthe deerskins were not large enough to cover them, and kept slidingoff. They were chilled through and sleep was impossible.

  "Lucile," said Marian at last, "I believe we could set the kiak up andbank it solidly into place, then creep into it and sleep there."

  "We might," said Lucile doubtfully.

  The kiak was soon set, and, after many doublings and twistings, withmuch laughter they managed to slide do
wn into it, and there, with twoof the deerskins for a mattress and two for covers, they at last fellasleep in one another's arms, as peacefully as children in atrundle-bed.

  "Oh, Marian, you're too--too chubby!" Lucile laughed, as she attemptedto struggle from the bean-pod-like bed, after they had slept for sometime.

  Their first glance at the break in the floe told them it had widenedrather than narrowed. A look skyward showed them that the fog too hadthickened. Lucile's brow wrinkled; her eyes were downcast.

  "Cheer up!" said Marian. "You can never tell what will happen. Thingschange rapidly in this Arctic world. We'd better explore our ice-floe,hadn't we? And don't you think we could eat a bit before we go?"

  Cheered by the very thought of something to be done, Lucile munched herhalf of the pilot biscuit and bit of reindeer meat contentedly.

  Then, after they had seen to it that their white middy flag wasproperly fastened, for this must act as a guide back to camp, theyprepared to go exploring.

  Armed with the butcher knife, Lucile led the way. Marian carried thefishing tackle, and about her waist were wound the strings of the boolaball.

  "Quite some hunters," laughed Marian. "Regular Robinson Crusoettes!"

  Several wide circles of the camp revealed nothing but ice, thewhiteness of which was relieved here and there by spots of water, blackas night.

  "Might be fish in them," suggested Marian.

  "Yes, but you couldn't catch them. You can only catch tomcod through ahole in the ice."

  They were becoming tired, and had spoken of turning back, when Marianwhispered:

  "Down!"

  She pulled her companion into the dark side of an ice-pile.

  A shadow had passed over the ice. Now it passed again, and Lucile,looking up, saw a small flock of ducks circling for a pool of water nottwenty yards away.

  "Wha--what's the idea?" she whispered.

  "Boola balls. Maybe we can catch one. They come from the north; noteasily scared."

  "Can you--"

  "Yes, my brother showed me how to handle the boola balls. You whirlthem about your head a few times, then you let them go. If the stringstrikes a duck's neck, it winds all about it; then the duck can't fly."

  With eager fingers Marian straightened out the twelve feet ofdouble-strand leather thong.

  "There! There! They're down!" whispered Lucile.

  "You stay here. If they rise and fly away, call me."

  Creeping around two piles of ice, Marian threw herself flat and beganto crawl the remaining distance across a flat pan of ice. Her heartwas beating wildly, for in her veins there flowed a strain of thehunter's blood of her Briton ancestors of many generations back.

  Now she was forty feet away, now twenty, now ten, and the ducks had notflown. Stretching out the thong, she rose on an elbow and set theballs whirling over her head. Once, twice, three times, then up shesprang and with one more whirl sent the string singing through the air.

  The young ducks, craning their necks with curiosity, did not move untilsomething came crashing at them, and a wildly frantic girl sprangtoward them.

  To the duck about whose neck the string had encircled, this move wastoo late, for Marian was upon him. And a moment later, looking verymuch like the old woman who went to market, with a dead gray duckdangling from her right arm, Marian returned in triumph.

  "Oh, Lucile," she cried, "I got him! I got him!"

  "Fine! You shall have a medal," said Lucile.

  "But how _will_ we cook him?"

  "Well," said Lucile, after a moment's thought, "it's growing colder;going to freeze hard. They say freezing meat is almost as good ascooking it. I don't know--"

  "Look!" cried Marian suddenly, balancing herself at the crest of a highpile of ice. "What's all that black a little way over there to theleft? It's not like ice. Do you suppose it could be an island?"

  "Is the ice piling there?" Lucile asked, clinging to her friend's side."No, it isn't, so it can't be an island, for the island would stop theice as it flows and make it pile up."

  "But what can it be?"

  "We can't go over there, for we can't see our flag from there."

  "Yes, we can," said Marian. "I'll take off my petticoat and put it onthis ice-pile. We can see it from there, and when we get back here wecan see the flag."

  This new beacon was soon established. Then, with trembling and eagerfootsteps, the girls hastened to what appeared to be an oasis in adesert of ice.