CHAPTER XVII
_In Which Rubber Ice is Encountered and Billy Topsail is Asked a Pointed Question_
Dolly West's mother, with Dolly in her arms, resting against her soft,ample bosom, sat by the kitchen fire. It was long after dark. The windwas up--the cottage shook in the squalls. She had long ago washedDolly's eyes and temporarily staunched the terrifying flow of blood; andnow she waited--and had been waiting, with Dolly in her arms, a long,long time; rocking gently and sometimes crooning a plaintive song of thecoast to the restless child.
Uncle Joe West came in.
"Hush!"
"Is she sleepin' still?"
"Off an' on. She've a deal o' pain. She cries out, poor lamb!"
Dolly stirred and whimpered.
"Any sign of un, Joe?"
"'Tis not time."
"He might----"
"'Twill be hours afore he comes. I'm jus' wonderin'----"
"Hush!"
Dolly moaned.
"Ay, Joe?"
"Tommy's but a wee feller. I'm wonderin' if he----"
The woman was confident. "He'll make it," she whispered.
"Ay; but if he's delayed----"
"He was there afore dusk. An' Doctor Luke got underway across theBight----"
"He'll not come by the Bight!"
"He'll come by the Bight. I knows that man. He'll come by the Bight--an'he'll----"
"Pray not!"
"I pray so."
"If he comes by the Bight, he'll never get here at all. The Bight'sbreakin' up. There's rotten ice beyond the Spotted Horses. An'Tickle-my-Ribs is----"
"He'll come. He'll be here afore----"
"There's a gale o' snow comin' down. 'Twill cloud the moon. A man wouldlose hisself----"
"He'll come."
Uncle Joe West went out again. This was to plod once more down thenarrows to the base of Blow-me-Down Dick and search the vague light ofthe coast towards Thank-the-Lord and Mad Harry for the first sight ofDoctor Luke. It was not time. He knew that. There would be hours ofwaiting. It would be dawn before a man could come by Thank-the-Lord andMad Harry if he left Our Harbour even so early as dusk. And as forcrossing the Bight--no man could cross the Bight. It was blowing up,too--clouds rising and a threat of snow abroad. Uncle Joe West glancedapprehensively towards the northeast. It would snow before dawn. Themoon was doomed. A dark night would fall.
And the Bight--Doctor Luke would never attempt to cross the Bight----
* * * * *
Doctor Luke, hanging between the hummock and the pan, the gaff shiveringunder his weight, slowly subsided towards the hummock. It was a slow,cautious approach. He had no faith in his foothold. A toe slipped. Hepaused. It was a grim business. The other foot held. The leg, too, wasequal to the strain. He wriggled his toe back to its grip of the edge ofthe ice. It was an improved foothold. He turned then and began to liftand thrust himself backward. And a last thrust on the gaff set him onhis haunches on the Arctic hummock.
He turned to Billy Topsail.
"Thank God!" said he. And then: "Come on, Billy!"
There was a better light now. Billy Topsail chose a narrower space toleap. And he leaped it safely. And they went on; and on--and on! Therewas a deal of slippery crawling to do--of slow, ticklish climbing.Doctor Luke and Billy Topsail rounded bergs, scaled perilous inclines,leaped crevices. Sometimes they were bewildered for a space. When themoon broke they could glimpse the Spotted Horses from the highestelevations of the floe. In the depressions of the floe they could notdescry the way at all.
It was as cold as death now. Was it ten below? The gale bit like twentybelow.
"_'Tis_ twenty below!" Billy Topsail insisted.
Doctor Luke ignored this.
"We're near past the rough ice," said he, gravely.
"Rubber ice ahead," said Billy.
Neither laughed.
"Ay," the Doctor observed; and that was all.
When the big northeast wind drove the ice back into Anxious Bight andheaped it inshore, the pressure had decreased as the mass of the floediminished in the direction of the sea. The outermost areas had not feltthe impact. They had not folded--had not "raftered." There had been noconvulsion offshore as inshore when the rocks of Afternoon Coastinterrupted the rush. The pans had come to a standstill and snuggledclose.
When the wind failed they had subsided towards the open. As they say onthe coast, the ice had "gone abroad." It was distributed. And after thatthe sea had fallen flat; and a vicious frost had caught thefloe--wide-spread now--and frozen it fast. It was six miles from theedge of the raftered ice to the first island of the Spotted Horses. Theflat pans were solid enough--safe and easy going; but this new,connecting ice--the lanes and reaches of it----
Doctor Luke's succinct characterization of the condition of AnxiousBight was also keen.
These six miles were perilous.
"Soft as cheese!"
All that day the sun had fallen hot on the young ice in which thescattered pans of the floe were frozen. Doctor Luke recalled that in theafternoon he had splashed through an occasional pool of shallow water onthe floe between Tumble Tickle and the short-cut trail to Our Harbour.Certainly some of the wider patches of green ice had been weakened tothe breaking point. Here and there they must have been eaten clearthrough. It occurred to Doctor Luke--contemplating an advance withdistaste--that these holes were like open sores.
And by and by the first brief barrier of new ice confronted Doctor Lukeand Billy Topsail. They must cross it. A black film--the colour of waterin that light--bridged the way from one pan to another. Neither DoctorLuke nor Billy Topsail would touch it. They leaped it easily. A fewfathoms forward a second space halted them. Must they put foot on it?With a running start a man could--well, they chose not to touch thesecond space, but to leap it.
Soon a third interval interrupted them. No man could leap it. DoctorLuke cast about for another way. There was none. He must run across. Aflush of displeasure ran over him. He scowled. Disinclination increased.
"Green ice!" said he.
"Let me try it, sir!"
"No."
"Ay, sir! I'm lighter."
"No."
Billy Topsail crossed then like a cat before he could be stopped--ontiptoe and swiftly; and he came to the other side with his heart in aflutter.
"Whew!"
The ice had yielded without breaking. It had creaked, perhaps--nothingworse. Doctor Luke crossed the space without accident. It was what iscalled "rubber ice." There was more of it--there were miles of it. Asyet the pans were close together. Always however the intervalsincreased. The nearer the open sea the more wide-spread was the floe.Beyond--hauling down the Spotted Horses, which lay in the open--theproportion of new ice would be vastly greater.
At a trot, for the time, over the pans, which were flat, and indelicate, mincing little spurts across the bending ice, Doctor Luke andBilly Topsail proceeded. In a confidence that was somewhat flushed--theyhad rested--Doctor Luke went forward. And presently, midway of a laneof green ice, he heard a gurgle, as the ice bent under his weight. Waterwashed his boots. He had been on the lookout for holes. This hole heheard--the spurt and gurgle of it. He had not seen it.
"Back!" he shouted, in warning.
Billy ran back.
"All right, sir?"
Safe across, Doctor Luke grinned. It was a reaction of relief.
"Whew! _Whew!_" he whistled. "Try below."
Billy crossed below.
"Don't you think, sir," said he, doubtfully, "that we'd best go back?"
"Do you think so?"
Billy reflected.
"No, sir," said he, flushing.
"Neither do I. Come on."
Billy Topsail, M.D.: A Tale of Adventure With Doctor Luke of the Labrador Page 19