CHAPTER XVIII.
AFTER THE STORM.
"Sure she's deserted, are you?" asked the cautious Teddy, as he followedthe other members of the little party aboard, the old Cree Indian guidebringing up the rear.
"Not a sign of any living thing here," came the answer, as Ned peeredabout.
"Sometimes, I understand, that you can run across all sorts of horriblesights on one of these same wrecks," continued Teddy. "Sailors getdrowned, you know, down in the hold or in the forecastle. I hope wedon't discover anything like that now. I never did fancy sights asghastly as that."
"And I don't think you need bother your head about it," Ned told him,"because, in the first place, this wreck has been here quite some time;and, then again, you can see that wreckers have been aboard and strippednearly all the iron and brass and copper out, because it was valuable.Perhaps there may be some Esquimaux living along the shore of HudsonBay; or else it was the men up at the mine who did it. What we want todo is to find out what state the cabin happens to be in. A dry roofwould be about the best we could ask to-day."
They made a rush toward the stairs that led down, which in most vesselswould be known as the companionway. A shout went up as they looked intothe cabin. It was almost destitute of anything that might serve as acomfort, but a broken stove gave promise of a fire, with all the delightthat this carried in its train.
"We bunk here, all right," said Frank, as soon as he had sighted thatstove; it was really a sorry object, but then everything depends on theconditions surrounding one when rendering judgment--at home, they wouldhave never given such a dilapidated thing house room; but shipwreckedmariners are not likely to be critical, and that broken stove was stillcapable of carrying fire.
"Get busy with your hatchets, those who have them, and lay in a supplyof wood for burning," Jack called out, suiting his own actions to thewords, and beginning to chop away vigorously.
"I don't suppose it matters a cent where you bang," remarked Jimmy,following the example set by the other scout; "and if we stay here longenough, we might burn up the whole bally ship. All she's good for,anyhow, to give a bunch of fellers that have lost their blankets a liftin a rain storm. Whack away, boys; nobody ain't goin' to say a wordwhat you do, only cut wood."
"We didn't get in here any too soon," Frank told them; and uponlistening they could hear the rain falling heavily on the broken deck ofthe derelict.
When one is securely sheltered that sound never strikes awe to the soul;in fact, it seems almost a merry tune, like that played upon the atticroof, in the good old days when you visited grandpa out on the farm, andcould lie in bed, feeling glad you were not out in that downpour.
"Let her rain all she wants to," said Teddy; "it can't hurt us, becauseI don't think any kind of a downpour would raise the whole bay enough tofloat us off this sandy beach."
The others laughed at his remark. Teddy was so ready to conjure uptroubles that never could have any real excuse for existing.
"What I'm provoked about," Jack ventured, "is that we didn't get achance to signal to that nearest vessel before the fog cut her outagain. But let's hope they'll hang around somewhere till the rain'sover, and we can let them know the fix we're in."
"Huh! s'pose they don't know anything about wigwagging with the flags?"Jimmy put in. "Vessels have a way of talking across miles of water, butthen their code is a whole lot different from the one scouts use ashore.We might be able to let 'em know we wanted some help, and would paywell for it. Money talks when a lot of other things are like mud."
Willing hands made light work, and a fire was soon burning in the oldremnant of a stove that had once done duty in the midst of ice-packs,when the wreck was a gallant vessel in search of oil or, perhaps,sealskins.
After all, they had little reason to complain. The rain pattered on thedeck, and, in a few places, leaked through; but there was plenty of dryspace, so that none of the boys need get sprinkled. As for fuel, theyhad abundance of it, so long as their camp hatchets kept an edge, andtheir muscles held out for service.
"Not so bad, is it, Jimmy?" Teddy wanted to know, as they tried to makethemselves as comfortable as possible, by hunting up all sorts of thingscapable of being turned into rough seats.
Of course, these were of no value whatever, for in frequent raids on thepart of wreckers, whoever they may have been, everything worth takinghad long since been carried away. Indeed, Frank declared he was puzzledto know why they had overlooked the broken stove; and all of them agreedit must have been by mistake.
"Well, I should say not," was the reply, on the part of thefreckled-face lad, as he sighed and looked around him. "D'ye know I wasjust thinking how happy we could be in this palace if only we had thoselovely blankets along; yes, and all that good stuff to eat. I think I'dbe apt to pick up some weight here, if we had a cinch like that. But nowevery meal we enjoy means we're that much closer to the end. Mebbe we'llhave to do what shipwrecked sailors do, draw lots for a sacrifice. I seemy finish, if ever it comes to that, because I always get the wrong endof the deal or the stick."
"I pity the one who has to take a bite out of such a tough case as you,"Teddy frankly told him; and somehow Jimmy seemed to consider that he hadbeen given a bouquet, for he bowed and smiled and looked pleased.
"Tell the rest that," he whispered to Teddy "and I'll be safe."
The rain kept coming down steadily as the hours wore on.
"Tell me about your tropical showers," Jimmy remarked, as noon came andfound no change in the conditions, "right up here on the border of theArctic regions, when it takes a notion to rain, it does make up for losttime. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if it kept the plug out of the rainbarrel for a week now."
"It's bound to make the going worse for us," Frank grumbled.
"Why, all the marshes will be flooded, and we'll have a high old timetrying to navigate through the same. What do you think, Ned?" Teddywanted to know.
The patrol leader looked at them, and smiled.
"I think history is repeating itself, and that you fellows are crossingbridges again before you get to them," he replied.
"Do you mean that there's a chance we won't have to tramp through thesebogs and cross the salt water marshes?" demanded Jimmy.
"Well, we're here right now, and fairly comfortable," Ned told him."What will happen next is something none of us can more than guess; but,as long as some of those vessels keep hovering around out on the bay,I'll hug a hope that we'll find some way of getting in touch with them."
"Which I take it means you firmly believe they're real, and not FlyingDutchmen, like they tell about in yarns of the sea?" Jimmy asked.
"I believe what my eyes tell me," answered the other, "and through theglass I saw men on those vessels, going about their regular daily tasks.Whatever they may be doing up here in Hudson Bay, take my word for it,there's nothing of the phantom about that fleet. They have some goodreason for coming and going so mysteriously. Perhaps we'll know what itis before we get away from here."
Jimmy and Teddy, the pair of doubters, seemed to feel somewhat betterafter this little heart-to-heart talk with Ned. The leader of the WolfPatrol had a happy faculty for inspiring others with some of his ownconfidence, which is one of the finest qualities a scout can possess.
There was a watch being kept to guard against any unexpected happening.As was to be expected, the two guides took it upon themselves to lookafter this part of the business. One of them was on duty at a time, andit could be so arranged that the sentry did not necessarily have toexpose himself to the inclemency of the weather, in order to standguard.
Nothing came to pass, and the long, dreary day gradually neared its end.
"Never knew such a terribly monotonous time in all me life," Jimmygrumbled; for he would not have been happy unless he could find anoccasional chance to "let off steam," as Teddy called it.
"Well," said Jack, "it's nearly night now, and let me tell you a greatsecret."
"Go on!" exclaimed the other, looking interested.
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br /> "The rain's stopped!" Jack explained.
"Well, I declare, if that isn't true for you, Jack!" cried Jimmy; "andto think that after me waiting for hours to be the first to tell thejoyful tidings, I had to get thinking so deeply about our affairs that Iclean forgot all about it. But it may not last. Sometimes there's abreak, and then the old storm comes back again, worse nor ever."
"Clouds zey be break right now, over zere," and Francois, who had justcome in from the sheltered nook where watch was kept, pointed as hespoke toward the southwest, where the storm had been coming from.
"Oh! if that's the case," added Jimmy, thinking it best to cheer up,"I'll take back what I said. And let's hope a lot of this water'll soakaway before we have to put our best foot forward again in the morning."
"I suppose we'll have to eat again," remarked Frank.
"Please don't force yourself," Jimmy told him. "It's a bad plan to eatwhen you don't feel like it. And, by the same token, your loss will beour gain."
It was a good thing that the scouts could joke among themselves, evenwhen facing desperate conditions. They had enough of gloom around themwithout allowing it to seize upon their spirits.
By this time their stock of food was getting down to such a low ebb thatthere was little choice when it came to preparing a meal. True, Jimmywould run over a long list of things that appealed especially to hisclamorous appetite; but after all was said and done, it might benoticed that each meal was very much a repetition of those that had gonebefore.
Indeed, even at that, no one would have complained of the sameness oftheir food, if only the supply looked more promising.
Jimmy, who helped get supper ready, heaved many a heavy sigh, as hefigured that at this rate the larder would be bare by the next evening.
"And after that, what?" he went around asking every one; but they onlylaughed at his fears, and told him to remember that in the past luckalways came their way when the skies looked darkest.
"Something will happen, see if it don't," Frank observed, with a faiththat had solid foundation; because they had just been talking of manyoccasions when circumstances had suddenly arisen to bring them aglorious success.
"And, anyhow, we'll often look back to this hotel on the beach with asmile," was what Teddy observed, as he turned his head and glanced atthe dilapidated cabin of the wrecked whaling vessel, seen by the fitfulflashes of light from the fire, at which Francois was cooking supper.
"We'll miss the mattress of hemlock browse to-night, I reckon," Nedhinted, as he looked down at the hard floor of the cabin.
"Look out for lame limbs to-morrow morning, then," Jack chuckled. "Iexpect to see a lot of limping cripples start out the first thing.Sleeping on boards may be better than nothing, but it's little rest Iexpect to get."
"I've heard of fellers sleepin' standin' up," Jimmy informed him."There's that old veteran, Daddy Spellmire, who tells such yarns aboutthe old days when he 'fit in the war with Siegel.' He says some of themwere so dead tired that when they were marching they'd press close uptogether; and often he's slept while moving his legs in a mechanicalway, held up by his comrades all around."
"We might try that if everything else fails," said Frank.
Supper being ready they started in and enjoyed it. Boys are not prone toworry very much about the future. The present is enough in theirestimation to look after. What might happen was for them to handle whenit came to pass; only Jimmy, at times, liked to grumble and complainthat he was not getting a square deal.
When they had finished eating, it was night. Though stars had peeped outhere and there, it still looked somewhat gloomy, even if the mist wasclearing away to seaward. The breeze had shifted around, so that withthe incoming tide the waves ran far up on the beach now, and there wasconsiderable of a roar in the air as these curled over and broke uponreaching shallow places.
Time was beginning to hang heavy on the hands of the five scouts. Theymissed the delightful surroundings which they had enjoyed while campingeach night, during the time they were moving northward in the canoes. Itwas so different here in this dingy old cabin, when they would haveenjoyed seeing the trees waving above their heads, and felt thespringing turf underneath their bodies, as the time came to seek theirblankets under the shelter of the khaki-colored waterproof tents, nowalas, gone no doubt forever.
Frank, seeing that his chums were not feeling in a very merry mood asthey tried to settle down as comfortably as they could, wandered outsideto the sloping deck to talk with Francois, who had taken the Indianguide's place on watch.
He had hardly been gone three minutes when they heard him coming downthe companionway in great haste. Somehow, everyone of the others seemedto understand that the terrible stagnation was about to be broken up.
When Frank burst into the cabin his face told the story. He was bringingthem news of some sort, for his eyes were glowing and his face flushed.
"What ails you, Frank?" asked Jack, as they scrambled to their feet.
"After all, it begins to look like we needn't bother about how we'regoing to sleep to-night, standing or sitting!" the newcomer announced,breathlessly.
"How is that?" asked Jimmy.
"Why, there are lights coming along the shore right now--lanterns Ishould say, at a rough guess," Frank went on; "chances are the minershave learned about our being aboard this old wreck, and mean to gatherus in before morning!"
Boy Scouts on Hudson Bay; Or, The Disappearing Fleet Page 18