by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XII
ADRIFT ON THE OPEN SEA
As the iceberg turned, great masses of ice, some of them weighing tons,loosened from the main body, and with loud rumbling and roar crashedinto the sea. Bobby, when he realized what was happening, began with allhis energy to scramble up the wall of ice as it rose from the water.
Fortunately it was a small iceberg, and fortunately, also, it turnedslowly and with deliberation and but a short distance, when it againreached its equilibrium, and was still.
Bobby's life had been one of pretty constant peril and adventure, andafter the manner of wilderness dwellers he had learned resourcefulnessand self-possession. It is indeed a part of the daily training of everylad of the wilderness, that he acquire these attributes, until at lastthey become second nature to him, and instinctively he does the thinghe should do when he comes suddenly face to face with unexpecteddangers. And so it was with both Bobby and Jimmy, and thus it came aboutthat Bobby did not lose his head when the iceberg began to turn, andwhen it was again at rest he found himself upon a high pinnacle, withthe seething waters all around him. To be sure, his heart beat faster,and it was but natural that he should be excited, but his nerves werenevertheless under control, and his wits, too.
From his perch upon the iceberg Bobby looked eagerly for Jimmy and theskiff. He feared that some of the ponderous blocks of ice had fallenupon them and crushed them, and the thought made him heart-sick for aninstant.
But presently he saw the skiff, filled with water and smothering in theswell, and a moment later he discovered Jimmy, also smothering in theswell, but swimming vigorously toward the iceberg. This brought him vastrelief. Jimmy was alive and apparently uninjured, and the wholeadventure became to Bobby at once an ordinary occurrence of theirevery-day life, for which he was mightily thankful. To be sure it was anunpleasant and annoying adventure, but they would escape from it, he hadno doubt, none the worse for their experience. And in this frame of mindhe clambered down the slippery sides of the ice hill to a level spot atthe water's edge, shouting in the most matter-of-fact way, as he did so:
"This way, Jimmy! This way! You can climb aboard here!"
In a few strokes Jimmy came alongside, and Bobby, taking his hand,helped him to scramble, shivering, to the ice.
"My, Bobby, but I was glad to see you here!" Jimmy exclaimed through hischattering teeth. "I was afraid you were done for! I was afraid itcarried you under when it turned."
"I was afraid you were done for, too!" and there was thanksgiving inBobby's voice. "How did it happen you got into the water? Did the icehit the skiff?"
"I don't know how it happened," said Jimmy. "I don't think the ice hitthe skiff, but it all came so suddenly I don't know."
"Well, here we are, and out there's the boat, and we've got to get it,"declared Bobby. "I'm going for it."
"No, let me go. I'm wet anyhow, and I'm all right for it," Jimmyprotested. "I might have brought it in with me, but I didn't see it."
"I'm going," declared Bobby, with an accent that left no doubt he was,as he pulled off his clothes, and his sealskin boots. "You've had yourdip, and I'm going to have one now--the first of the year."
"It's pretty cold," Jimmy cautioned. "I've been in, and I'm used to it,and don't mind it."
But Bobby was in, and swimming for the skiff. It was, fortunately, notabove fifty or sixty feet away, for the whole occurrence had taken placewithin a very few minutes' time, and the boat had not yet had time todrift beyond reach.
A few strokes carried Bobby to the submerged skiff. He secured thepainter, which was attached to the bow, and with some hard tuggingreached the iceberg, and climbed up with Jimmy's assistance.
"You'd better take off your things and wring 'em out, while I dress,"Bobby suggested, as he drew his clothes on.
"I guess I had," Jimmy agreed.
"Now," said Bobby, when he and Jimmy were dressed, after Jimmy had wrungas much of the water as possible from his clothes, "we're going to havea hard time of it getting the water out of her. How'll we do it?"
"Can't we get her alongside and turn her over?" Jimmy suggested. "We canpull her up empty."
With some mighty pulling and hauling, and many futile efforts, they atlength succeeded, and presently the skiff was in the water again andfloating as easily as though nothing had happened and it had never oncebeen under the waves. And then a new problem confronted them.
"The oars! The oars are gone!" exclaimed Jimmy in consternation.
And so they were. Nowhere could they discover the oars, though theyclambered up the iceberg again and scanned the surrounding sea.
"Well," said Bobby, "that's hard luck! I wonder if we can't make fatheror some one hear. Let's get up on top and yell."
From the top of the iceberg they shouted and shouted, but Mrs. Abel wasin one tent, busied with her household affairs, and Skipper Ed and Abelwere in the other tent, making ready their fishing gear, and the breezeblew from the land, and altogether no one heard the shouting.
"No use," said Bobby at last, descending to the skiff. "I'll tell youwhat we'll do. We'll knock one of the seats out, split it, and make twopaddles. They'll be short, but they'll do us to get ashore. It isn'tfar."
"It looks as though it's the only thing to do, unless we want to stayhere for three or four hours," agreed Jimmy, taking the ax and knockingout the seat. "I'm shivering cold from my wetting."
"It's lucky I hung to the ax," said Bobby, as he watched Jimmyfashioning the paddles.
"There," said Jimmy at length, "they're pretty short paddles, but we'llhave to make 'em do. Let's get off of this."
But the tide was running out, and a very strong tide it proved, and thebreeze from the land was stiff enough, too, had there been no opposingtide, to have made pulling against it with a good pair of oars no easytask. All this they did not realize until they had paddled beyond theshelter of the iceberg, for they had drawn the boat up upon its leeside.
They put all the energy they could muster into their effort, but thepaddles were very short and very narrow, and work as they would theypresently discovered that tide and wind were mastering them, and insteadof progressing toward Itigailit Island they were drifting seaward.
"We can't make it!" said Jimmy at last.
"No," agreed Bobby. "We'll have to go back to the berg and wait for themto come for us."
But even that they could not accomplish. Work as they would, thepaddles proved hopelessly inefficient, and after an hour's desperateeffort they realized that they were nearly as far to seaward from theiceberg as the iceberg was from Itigailit Island.
"Well," said Bobby, at length, "we're in for it, and a fine fix it is."
"What are we going to do?" asked Jimmy. "We've _got_ to do something."
"I wish that I had some of that bear meat. I'm as hungry as the old bearever was," said Bobby, irrelevantly.
"Well, so am I, but we'll be hungrier than the bear ever was, I'mthinking, if we don't do something to get to land," broke in Jimmy withsome irritation. "Why, Bobby, don't you realize what it means? We've gotno water and nothing to eat! We'll perish of thirst and hunger if wedon't get to land! Unless a sea rises and swamps us, and then we'lldrown!"
"It does look as though we were drifting to the place I came from, butit won't do any good to worry," said Bobby. "Maybe when the tide turnswe can do something. The wind goes down with the sun every evening, andthen with the tide in our favor maybe we can make it."
"It'll be a good hour yet before the tide turns, and two or three hoursbefore sundown, and where'll we be then?" argued Jimmy, dejectedly. "Iwish I could be like you, Bobby, and not worry over things the way Ido."
"Well, just remember that we did the best we could to get out of themess after we got into it, and if we keep on doing our best that is allwe can do, and worrying won't help us any. I just feel like beingthankful that you weren't killed and we're both here safe and sound,with an even chance that we'll get back home all right."
And so, paddling, drifting, sometimes
silent for a long while, sometimestalking, the time passed. The land faded upon the horizon and was lost.Icebergs lay about them. Once they were startled by the thunderous roarof a monster berg in the distance as it toppled and turned upon itsside, and later they felt its swell. Not far away a whale spouted.
Finally the sun set, and the wind died, and for a little while theheavens and icebergs and sea were marvelously and gloriously paintedwith crimson and purple and orange.
Then came the long gray twilight of the North, and at last the stars,and night, and darkness, with the icebergs, white, spectral, and coldlymajestic, rising in silhouette against the distant sky, and thethrobbing, restless sea, somber and black, around them.