by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXVI
CAST AWAY ON THE ICE
It was one of Bobby's characteristics never to acknowledge himselfdefeated in anything he undertook to do, so long as there seemed apossibility of accomplishing the thing in hand. He had set out to find asuitable drift and to build a snow house. He was confident such a driftwas to be found not far from the _komatik_ where he had left Jimmy, forin passing to Itigailit Island and back with loads of seals earlier inthe day he had observed some good hard drifts which he believed to be inthis locality, though he was aware that in the blinding snow he may havestopped the dogs a little on one side or the other of them. So he feltassured that he and Jimmy had overlooked them in their previous search,and this time he was determined to find them.
This it was, then--this dislike to feel himself beaten--rather than direnecessity, that had sent him on the final search. And, too, the man wholives constantly in the wilderness never endures unnecessary hardships.He makes himself as comfortable as the conditions under which he liveswill permit, and provides himself as many conveniences and comforts aspossible under the circumstances in which he finds himself, withoutburdening himself with needless luxuries.
Bobby had hinted to Jimmy that they might protect themselves under thesnow, after the manner of the dogs. He had done this once during thewinter, when he and Abel Zachariah were hunting together and weresuddenly overtaken by a storm. But at best this was an uncomfortablemethod of passing a night, and a last resort, and Bobby was thereforequite willing to endure preliminary discomfort in order to secure an_igloo_.
Engrossed in his search he wandered much farther afield than he hadintended, and much farther than he knew, which was a reckless thing todo. And so it came about that presently, when his search was rewarded bya solid drift of hard-packed snow, and he shouted to Jimmy to come onwith the dogs, no answer came from Jimmy, and Bobby, endeavoring tolocate himself, became quite confused and uncertain as to the directionin which Jimmy and the _komatik_ lay, for his course had been a windingcourse, in and out among the hummocks, and in the blinding, swirlingsnow he could never see a dozen feet from where he stood.
Then he shouted again and listened intently, and again and again, butonly the roar and boom of sea and pounding ice and the shrieking andweird moaning of the wind gave answer.
"Well, I've lost Jimmy, sure enough," he acknowledged to himself atlast, after much futile shouting, "and I'm lost myself, too! I don'tknow north from south, and I couldn't hit in ten guesses in whichdirection the _komatik_ is! This is a pretty mess!"
Dusk was not far off, and there was no time to be lost, and withoutfurther parley or useless waste of breath and strength Bobby set bravelyto work with his snow knife, as any wilderness dweller in similar casewould have done, and in a little while had prepared for himself agrave-shaped cavern in the drift, with a stout roof of snow blocks, andwhen it was finished he crawled in and closed the entrance with a hugeblock.
This emergency shelter was, of course, not to be compared with aproperly built _igloo_, but an _igloo_ he could scarcely have built inthe face of the storm without assistance. It was, however, much morecomfortable than a burrow in the drift, such as Jimmy had made, for itgave him an opportunity to turn over and stretch his limbs, and itafforded him, also, a considerable breathing space.
"'Twould be fine, now, if I only had my sleeping bag," he soliloquized,when he had at last composed himself in his improvised shelter. "I hopeJimmy's just as snug. I told him about getting in the snow like the dogsdo, and he'll do it and be all right, and he's got his sleeping bag,too."
Bobby was not given to vain regrets and needless worry, as we have seen,but nevertheless he could not keep his mind from the possible fate ofhimself and Jimmy, and think as he would he could conceive of nopossible means of their escape, save in the possibility of the floecoming again in contact with land. Then his thoughts ran to Abel andMrs. Abel, and before he was aware of it he was crying bitterly.
"If I'd only hurried on, as Skipper Ed told me to!" he moaned. "I'malways doing something! And there's Jimmy in the--in the fix too! And itwas all my fault!"
And then he remembered the evening devotions that Abel and Mrs. Abelwere doubtless then holding in the cabin. He could see Abel taking theold worn Eskimo Bible and hymnal from the shelf, and Abel reading andthe two good folks singing a hymn, and then kneeling in praise andthanks to God for his mercies. And joining them in spirit he sang theEskimo version of "Nearer My God to Thee," and then he knelt and prayed,and felt the better for it.
For a long while he lay, after his devotions were ended, recalling thekindness of his beloved foster parents. But at last he, too, like Jimmy,fell asleep to the tune of the booming ice and howling wind, and,exhausted with his day's work, he slept long and heavily.
When Bobby awoke at last he perceived that it was twilight in his snowcavern, and, listening for the wind, discovered to his satisfaction thatit had ceased to blow.
"Now I'll find Jimmy," said he, seizing his snow knife, "and see how hespent the night in the storm."
He removed the snow block from the entrance and cut away theaccumulated drift, and crawling out at once looked about him withastonished eyes. On one side very near where he had been sleeping waveswere breaking upon the ice, and far away beyond the waters lay the bleakand naked headland of Cape Harrigan. In the east the sun was justrising, and the snow of the ice pack sparkled and glittered withwondrous beauty.
But Bobby saw only the open water, and the distant land, and nowhereJimmy or the dogs. A sickening dread came into his heart. The water hadeaten away the ice as he slept! That was the side upon which Jimmy musthave been! Jimmy was gone! He had no doubt Jimmy's body was now floatingsomewhere in that stretch of black water!
Then he ran out over the ice and among the hummocks, shouting: "Jimmy!Jimmy! Answer me, Jimmy, and tell me you're alive! Oh, Jimmy! Tell meyou're alive!"
But no Jimmy answered, and, overcome with grief, Bobby sat down upon thesnow and threw his arms over his knees, and, pillowing his head in thecrook of his elbow, wept.
"It's all my fault! It's all my fault!" he moaned. "I the same as killedhim! I led him into it! Oh, if I hadn't gone back for the whip! Oh, ifI'd only hurried when Skipper Ed told me to!"
But Bobby was young and healthy and active, and had an appetite, and theair was excessively cold. The appetite began to call for food and drink,and the cold drove him to exercise. And so, rising at last and dryinghis eyes, he very wisely resolved:
"There's no good to come from crying or mourning about Jimmy, I suppose,or what's past. I've got to do something for myself now. There's achance the ice may drive back with a shift of wind, and I've got to tryto keep alive as long as I can."
He had nothing to eat, no cup into which to melt ice for water, and nolamp or seal oil with which to make a fire over which to melt the icehad he possessed a cup, but he set out at a rapid pace to explore theice field, clinging as he walked to his snow knife, the only weapon hepossessed, for his rifle had been left upon the _komatik_, and in alittle while he discovered that the pack was not so large as he hadsupposed it to be, for the heavy seas of the night before had eaten awayits edges. It had broken away, indeed, to a point far within theboundaries of their old _igloo_ and the place where they had hunted.
"The first little blow will break the whole floe up," he saiddejectedly. "Anyhow I suppose it won't matter, for I'll soon starve todeath without a gun."
But out to the southward lay a great field of ice, and it seemed not sofar away. An hour's observation assured Bobby that his small floe wastraveling much more rapidly than this larger field, and was graduallyapproaching it. Late in the afternoon he caught the glint of miniaturebergs, as the sunlight touched them, rising above the great floe ahead,and as he watched them a burst of understanding came upon him.
"It's the great North pack!" he exclaimed. "It's the Arctic pack! If Ican get on that I'll be safe from drowning, anyhow, for a few days! It'sstronger than this, and it'll stand some good blows."
To quench his thirst he clipped particles of ice with his snow knife andsucked them, while he ran up and down to keep warm. And, as nightapproached, he built a new night shelter from snow blocks, near thecenter of his floe, and, very hungry and despondent, crawled into it tolie long and think of Abel Zachariah and Mrs. Abel, and the losthappiness in the cabin which was his home; and of Skipper Ed and Jimmy,and of the old days that were now gone forever, when he and Jimmy hadplayed together with never a thought of the terrible fate that awaitedthem; and of the adventure on the cliff, and the hundred other scrapesinto which they had got and from which they had somehow always escapedunharmed; and even of the lonely grave on Itigailit Island, and thecairn of stones he had built upon it.
"A tragedy brought me into the country," he said to himself, "and atragedy has taken me out of it, and the end of my life will be atragedy."
And then, after long thought:
"Skipper Ed says our destiny is God's will. But God always has apurpose in His will. I wonder if I've fulfilled my destiny, and what thepurpose of it was. Maybe it was just to be a son to Father and Mother."
He mused upon this for a long time, and then his thoughts ran to SkipperEd and Jimmy:
"I wonder what there is in Skipper Ed's life that he's never told us,"he pondered. "He's always said he was a wandering sailor-man, who stoppedon the coast because he liked it. He never was a common sailor, I'msure. I never thought of that before! Sailors aren't educated, and heis! And whenever Jimmy or I asked him to tell about his own life beforehe came here he always put us off with something else."
And then he fell asleep to dream that he and Skipper Ed were walkingunder strange trees, with flowers, the like of which he had never seen,blooming all about them and making the air sweet with their perfume.