tell you, butevidently on the best of terms with themselves and their beautifulengine. The doctor was busy stowing his bottles away, and the stewardwas making the pantry shipshape, and our heroes themselves were stowingaway all loose gear in their cabins. Presently they entered the saloonagain, where was Freezing Powders making the cockatoo's cage fast with amorsel of lanyard.
"Here's a pretty to-do!" the bird was saying, half choking on a billfulof hemp. "Call the steward!--call the steward!--call the steward!"
"You jus' console yourse'f," said the boy, "and don't take sich bigmou'fuls o' hemp. Mind, you'll be sea-sick p'esently."
"De-ah me!"
"Yes, ye will--dreffully sea-sick. Den you wants to call de stewardplenty quick."
One ice-anchor came on board; the other--the bow--was cut adrift as theship's stern swung round seaward. Almost at the same moment anexplosion was heard close alongside, as if one of the boilers had burst.The great berg to which they had been anchored had parted company withthe floe, and was evidently bent on going to sea along with the_Arrandoon_.
Once they were a little way clear of the ice they could look about them,the snow no longer blowing over the vessel. The scene was peculiar, andsuch as can only be viewed in Greenland under like circumstances.
The whole field of ice, as far as it was visible, was a smother ofwhirling drift; the lofty cone of Jan Mayen, which though miles to thesouth'ard and west, had been so well-defined an object against the blueof the sky, was now blurred and indistinct, and the grey, driving cloudsevery now and again quite hid the top of it from view. All along theedge of the pack the snow was being blown seaward like smoke, or likethe white spray on the rocks where billows break. The eastern horizonwas a chaos of dark, shifting billows, as tall as houses, andfoam-tipped; but near by the ice, although the wind blew already withthe force of a gale, and the surface of the water was churned intofroth, there was not a wave bigger than you would see on a farmer'smill-pond.
What a pity it seemed to leave this comparatively smooth water and steamaway out into the centre of yonder mighty conflict 'twixt wind and wave.But well every one on board knew that to remain where they were was butto court destruction, for the noise that proceeded from the ice-fieldstold them the pack was breaking up. Ay, and bergs were already forgingahead of them, and surrounding them. Ere they were a mile from thefloes they found this out, and the danger from the floating masses ofice was very real indeed. Every minute the pieces were hurtled with allthe force of the waves against the sturdy vessel's weather-side,threatening to stave her; nor could McBain, who never left the bridgeuntil the vessel was well out to sea, avoid at times stemming the bergsthat appeared ahead of him. For often two would present themselves atone time, and one must be stemmed--the smaller of the twain; for to havecome in collision bow on, would have meant foundering.
But at length the danger was past as far as the ice was concerned,though now the seas were mountains high, and of Titanic force; so afteran hour or two the _Arrandoon_ lay to, and having seen the lights allproperly placed, and extra hands put on the look-out--having, in fact,done everything a sailor could do for the safety of his ship, McBaincame down below.
In shining oil-skins and dripping sou'-wester, he looked like some queersea-monster that had just been caught and hauled on board.
He looked a trifle more human, however, when the steward had marched offwith his outer garments.
"Is she snug?" asked Allan.
"Ay, lads, as snug as she is likely to be to-night," replied McBain;"but she doesn't like it, I can tell you, and the gale seems increasingto hurricane force. How is the glass, Rory?"
"Not so very low," said Rory; "not under twenty-nine degrees."
"But concave at the top?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, well," said McBain, "content yourselves, boys, for I think we'llhave days of it. I for one don't want to see much more of the ice whilethis blow lasts. But what a splendid fire you have! Steward, mind youput on the guard last thing to-night."
"Why the guard?" asked Rory.
"Because," explained McBain, "I feel certain that many a good ship hasbeen burned at sea by the fire falling out of the grate; a wave or apiece of ice hits her on the bows, the fire flies out of the stove, noone is below, and so, and so--"
"Yes," said Ralph, "that is very likely, and pray don't let us speak ofanything very dreadful to-night. List! how the wind roars, to be sure!But to change the subject--Peter."
"Ay, ay, sir."
"Is supper ready?"
"Very nearly, sir."
"Well, tell Seth to come, and Magnus."
"Ho! ho!" said McBain, "that's it, is it?"
"What a comfort on a night like this," Allan remarked, "it is to beshipmates with two such fellows as Ray and Row, the epicure and thepoet--the one to cater for the corporeal, the other for the mental man."
The ship was pitching angrily, dipping her bows deep down under thesolid seas and raising them quickly again, but not neglecting to shiptons of water every time, which found its way aft, so that down in thesaloon they could hear it washing about overhead and pouring past theports into the sea.
"Steady, sir, steady," cried Magnus, entering the saloon. He wasspeaking to Seth, who had preceded him. He didn't walk in, he came inhead first, and was now lying all his length on the saloon floor.
But Rory and Allan lifted him tenderly up again and seated him on thecouch, amid such remarks as, "No bones broken, I do hope," "Gently doesit, Seth, old man," "Have you really left your sea-legs forward?" "Callthe steward," the last remark being the cockatoo's.
"I reckon," said the old trapper, rubbing his elbows and knees, "thereain't any bones given way this time, but that same is more chance thangood management."
After supper--which was of Ralph's own choosing, I need not say more--ageneral adjournment was made to the after-cabin, or snuggery, and hereevery one adopted attitudes of comfort around the blazing stove, ineasy-chairs, on sofas, or on rugs and skins on the deck; there they sat,or lounged, or lay. The elders had their pipes, the youngsters coffee.But with the pitching and rolling of the ship it was not very easyeither to sit, or lounge, or lie, nor was it advisable to leave thecoffee in the cup for any length of time; nevertheless everybody washappy, for wondrous little care had they on their minds. Oh! how wildand tempestuous the night was, and how madly the seas leapt and tossedaround them! But they had a ship they could trust, and, better by far,a Power above them which they had learned to put confidence in.
Seth, to-night, was in what Ralph called fine form. His stories ofadventure, told in his dry, droll, inimitable way, were irresistible.De Vere's face never once lacked a smile on it; he loved to listenthough he could not talk.
Old Magnus also had some queer tales to tell, his relation of themaffording Seth breathing space. Several times during the evening Roryplayed, and the doctor tooted, as he called it.
Thus merrily and pleasantly sped the time--every one doing his best toamuse his neighbours--until eight bells rang out, then all retired.
It is on such a night as this that the soundest sleep visits the pillowof your thorough sailor--the roar of the wind overhead, the rocking ofthe ship, and the sound of the waves close by the ear, all conduce tosweetest slumber.
There was little if any improvement in the weather next day, nor forseveral days; but cold and stormy though it was, to be on the bridge,holding on--figuratively speaking--by the eyelids, was a glorious treatfor our sailor heroes. The masts bent like fishing-rods beneath theforce of the gale. At times the good ship heeled until her yard-endsploughed the waves, and if a sea struck her then, the spray leapt higherthan the main-truck, and the green water made a clean breach over her.On the second day the clouds were all blown away, but the wind retainedits force, and the waves their power and magnitude. Every wavethreatened to come inboard, and about one out of ten did. Those thatdidn't went singing astern, or got in under the _Arrandoon_, and tossedher all they could. The frost was intense, and in some way
or other, Ithink, accounted for the strange singing noise emitted by those wavesthat went past without breaking. But it was when one great sea followedswiftly on the heels of another that the good ship suffered most,because she would probably be down by the head when she received salutenumber two. It was thus she had her bulwarks smashed, and one good boatrent into matchwood and cast away.
It was no easy task to reach the bridge, nor to rush therefrom andregain the saloon companion. You had to watch the seas, and weregenerally pretty safe if you made use of arms and legs just after one ortwo big waves had done their worst; but Allan once, and Rory threetimes, were washed into the scuppers, and more bruised than
Wild Adventures round the Pole Page 27