by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXV
A LONELY JOURNEY
Weary as Jimmy was, he lay awake for a long time, torn by emotions andfilled with misgivings and wild imaginings. Would he ever see good oldPartner again? Would he ever see the cozy cabin that had been his homethrough all these happy years? Would he ever again sit, snug in his bigarm chair before the big box stove with its roaring fire, while SkipperEd helped him with his studies or told him stories of the far-off fairyland of civilization?
Then for a time he fell to thinking about Bobby, and, in his old way, toworrying, and to wondering if, after all, he could not or should notmake one more attempt to rescue his comrade.
"I never should have let him go that last time," he moaned. "If heperishes it will be my fault! I'm older and I should have thoughtfurther! I should have kept him back! But I'm so in the habit of lettinghim go ahead! Oh, I should have held him back! I should have held himback!"
And in this soliloquy Jimmy unconsciously admitted, though he did notknow it, that Bobby was his leader still, as he always had been, andthat Bobby's will and judgment dominated. Bobby had decided to go uponthat last attempt to find snow suitable for an _igloo_, and Bobby went,and Jimmy could no more successfully have interposed his judgmentagainst Bobby's than he could have stopped the blowing of the wind.
"No," he admitted to himself at last, "I could not have done anythingmore to find Bobby. In this terrible storm I would have perished, for itis physically impossible to move about."
And so presently Jimmy, easing his conscience, permitted his betterjudgment to prevail, though once he had been upon the point of diggingout of his retreat and throwing himself again into the maelstrom ofsuffocating snow and darkness. And then he prayed the good Lord topreserve Bobby's life and his own, and to guide them back to safety, asonly He could, for they were in His care.
Even under the snowdrift that had quickly covered him Jimmy could hearthe shrieking wind and thunderous pounding of ice and seas, and therewas little wonder that at last he fancied the floe rising and fallingbeneath him, and he lay in momentary expectation of being cast into thewater and crushed beneath mighty ice pans.
But Jimmy was young, and nature's demands were strong upon him, andpresently, snug under his accumulating blanket of snow, a drowsy warmthstole over him, and he slept.
How long he had been sleeping Jimmy did not know, when he awoke from adream that he and Skipper Ed and Bobby were in a snow _Igloo_ and thetop had fallen in and was suffocating him with its weight. For a moment,until he marshaled his wandering wits, he believed it no dream at all,but a reality, and then as the happenings of the previous afternoon andnight were remembered, he realized his position, and Bobby's going, andhe began wildly digging away the snow with his hands.
It was a hard task, but at last he made an opening through the drift,and was astonished as he forced his way out to find that it was broadday and the sun shone brightly and a dead calm prevailed.
But a wild terror came upon him as he looked about. Less than fifty feetfrom the place where he had lain waves were breaking over the edge ofthe ice. On the opposite side and very close to him lay the land, andthe ice upon which he stood was jammed against the land ice, offeringhim a clear road to safety.
But safety now meant nothing to Jimmy. The main ice pack from which hislittle section had broken, lay glimmering in the sunlight a full twomiles to the southeast and well out to sea, and Bobby was either on thatpack or had been lost in the sea. The discovery made Jimmy numb withfear and consternation.
He recognized the land near him as the farthermost point of CapeHarrigan. The pack in its southward drift had come in contact with CapeHarrigan's long projection of land, the wind had severed the pack, and,while the comparatively small section of floe upon which he stood hadremained jammed against the land, the main floe, reaching far out beyondthe obstruction of the cape, had been swept on and on, and was nowfloating steadily southward.
In frantic frenzy Jimmy ran about and shouted, and searched every nookand turn of his little corner of the original floe for Bobby, but therewas no trace of his missing comrade. Again and again he searched, butwithout reward. Bobby was gone and Jimmy no longer had any doubt that hehad perished.
With heavy heart he at last set about with his snow knife, digging the_komatik_ from under the drift and getting his load in order, and thenhe roused the dogs from their drifts and drove them to the land. Thegreat floe was now but a speck upon the far horizon.
There was nothing more he could do. He felt very much as Skipper Ed hadfelt the day before, and was feeling that very morning, and heremembered, and repeated over and over again, what Skipper Ed had sooften said: "Our destiny is in God's hands, and our destiny is Hiswill."
Jimmy's travels had carried him south nearly to Cape Harrigan on two orthree occasions when he had been with Skipper Ed in their trap boat insummer, and he knew that he could not be above two days' journey fromthe head of Abel's Bay, for now it was March and the days were growinglong. And between Cape Harrigan and Abel's Bay was a Hudson's Baytrading post where he and Skipper Ed sometimes traded furs and salttrout for flour and pork and tea, and beyond this point he knew thesledge route well.
So, as there was nothing else to be done, he turned the dog teamnorthward, in the hope that he might find the trading post and the oldfamiliar trail.
The weather was keen, the air was filled with floating rime, whichshimmered and sparkled in the sunshine, and Jimmy's garments werecovered with it, but, plodding disconsolately on and on, his heart heavywith the tragedy and his thoughts filled with Bobby and the happy yearsof comradeship that were ended, he did not feel or heed the cold ordazzling glitter of the snow, until in mid-afternoon his eyes began totrouble him, and he realized that snow-blindness was threatening.
Presently, however, the long, wolf-like howl of dogs came down to himover the ice, and rounding a point of land he discovered, directly aheadof him, and nestling at the foot of a great barren hill, the whitebuildings of the fort. His dogs immediately broke into a run, and a fewmoments later he was safe at the post.
The factor and the people were very hospitable and kind to Jimmy, afterthe manner of the Coast. They agreed that he had left nothing undonethat he could have done. The tragedy was, after all, an incident oflife, and all in a day's work, and to some extent they reconciled himwith himself, but they could not ease his sorrow.
They would not permit Jimmy to proceed further that night, though atfirst he protested that he must, that he might so much the sooner easeSkipper Ed's anxiety, so far as his own safety was concerned. But thepreceding twenty-four hours had tried his physical powers, and when heentered the heated post kitchen his eyes became so inflamed that heconsented to stay.
The dogs, which had not received their daily portion the previousevening, were ravenous, and when they were fed Jimmy stretched hissleeping bag upon the floor in the kitchen and slipped into it, andalmost immediately fell into deep slumber.
A mild attack of snow blindness held Jimmy prisoner all the next day.This was exceedingly disappointing. Bright and early the followingmorning, however, wearing a pair of smoked goggles to protect his eyesfrom the daily increasing sun glare, he set out for home, and onlyhalted for a little at the cabin of Abraham Moses, the nearest neighborof Skipper Ed and Abel Zachariah, where he must needs stop for tea andbread, else Abraham would feel offended.
It was near sunset when he arrived again at Abel Zachariah's. They methim as they had met Skipper Ed, and welcomed him warmly, and when theyheard his story of Bobby's disappearance they had no blame for him andno complaint, but said again that God had sent them Bobby, and God hadcalled him back again, and God knew best, for He was good. And thenJimmy left them and hurried eagerly on to the cabin home that sorecently had seemed lost to him forever. How good it looked that coldwinter evening, and when he quietly pushed the door open and silentlyentered, and surprised Skipper Ed with his coming, and when Skipper Edclasped him in his arms and thanked God over and over again for sparinghis partner,
Jimmy sank down in his chair and cried.
