by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE SHIPS THAT CAME DOWN TO THE ICE
Closer and closer came the three black streaks, and presently the masts,then the funnels, and finally the hulls of three ships appeared, firstone, then another, then the third. Bobby watched them with awe andwonder. He even forgot for a time that a way was opening for his escape.
The three ships were streaming directly toward the ice, and in thecourse of an hour after he had first sighted them the advance ship cameto, half a mile or so from the floe, and not above a mile to thesouthward of him. Boats were lowered before the steamer had fullystopped, and immediately men swarmed over her sides and into them, andin a moment the boats put off for the ice, the men climbed out upon itand presently were running everywhere, beating to the right and to theleft with clubs.
Then the boats returned to the ship to fetch more men, and still more,until there were more men upon the ice than Bobby had ever seen before,and all beating about them with their clubs. So it was with the otherships as they came up; they, too, sent scores upon scores of men to theice in boats.
Bobby was astonished beyond measure at what he saw, and at first he wasafraid, and watched from a distance. But at last he recalled that he hadheard of this thing before. These were the seal hunters fromNewfoundland, and with bats they were slaying the young white-coatseals, and such of the old seals, also, as did not slip away from theminto the water.
Finally some of the sealers from the first ship were making their way upover the ice in the direction of Bobby's _igloo_, and presently he knewthey would be upon the very seals that he had watched with so muchinterest growing from day to day. Among these were two men with guns,instead of clubs, and these two devoted their attention to the oldseals, which now and again they shot.
Overcome with awe and wonder, and timid in the presence of so manystrangers, Bobby kept himself from view while he watched, though he knewthat presently he would be called upon to present himself, in order thathe might escape from the floe, for in all probability no otheropportunity would come to him.
So, uncertain, expectant, and trembling with excitement, he remainedconcealed behind an ice hummock until the seal hunters in advance hadnearly reached him, and further concealment was impossible. Then hestepped boldly out.
The effect of Bobby's appearance was instantaneous and wonderful. A manin the advance, looking up, saw the strangely clad figure apparentlyrise out of the ice itself. The man turned about and wildly broke forthe boats. Then another and another took one terrified glance at thesupposed apparition, and tarrying not, turned about to compete with thefirst in a mad race for the boats. Shouts of "Ghost! Ghost!" filled theair, and then the stampede and panic became general, though after themanner of panic-stricken crowds, perhaps none but the first two or threehad the slightest idea why or from what they were running.
The two men with guns were still some little distance from Bobby whenthe stampede began. One of these men was perhaps twenty-three ortwenty-four years of age, the other many years his senior. They weredressed after the manner of sportsmen, and were evidently not members ofthe sealing crew. They did not join in the stampede as the men rushedpast them in wild flight and confusion, but in utter astonishment lookedfor its cause in the direction from which the men had come, anddiscovered nothing more terrifying than Bobby, standing alone and noless astonished at what had occurred than themselves, and more than halfinclined to run as fast in the opposite direction as the sealers had runtoward their boats.
"Uncle, there's an Eskimo!" exclaimed the younger of the two, observingBobby's sealskin garments, but at that distance unable to note that hisfeatures were wholly unlike those of an Eskimo.
"Sure enough!" said the older man. "That explains it! The men weren'texpecting to see any one, and they've taken him for a ghost! Come on,Edward. Let us interview him."
"How could an Eskimo get out here on the floe?" asked Edward, as theyset out toward Bobby. "We're a long way from land."
"I don't know," said his companion. "We'll soon learn. But Eskimohunters go a long way after seals, and he's probably on a huntingexpedition."
"Why, he hasn't the features of an Eskimo, though he's dressed like one;and he's a handsome looking chap!" said Edward, in an undertone, as theydrew near Bobby, who had overcome his inclination to run and had notmoved.
"Good-morning!" greeted the older man a moment later, when they werewithin speaking distance.
"Good-morning, sir," said Bobby, timidly.
"We thought you were an Eskimo, and" laughing, "the men apparentlythought you were a ghost. You gave them a fine fright."
"I didn't mean to frighten them," said Bobby apologetically."I only wanted them to take me off the ice."
"I was hunting," explained Bobby. "The ice broke looseand cut Jimmy and me off from Skipper Ed"]
"Take you off the ice? Why, how did you get on it? We thought perhapsyou were hunting."
"I was hunting," explained Bobby, "but now I'm adrift. I'm BobbyZachariah, from Abel's Bay. The ice broke loose and cut Jimmy and meoff from Skipper Ed, and Jimmy's drowned--"
Tears came into Bobby's eyes and he choked at the recollection.
"I'm Frederick Winslow," said the man kindly and sympathetically, takingBobby's hand, "and this is my nephew Edward Norman. We do not know whereAbel's Bay is, nor who Skipper Ed and Jimmy are, but we're glad we foundyou, and you're to go with us to the ship, and then you can tell usabout it, and there'll be a way to send you home to Abel's Bay."
"Edward Norman!" exclaimed Bobby. "Why, that's Skipper Ed's name!"
"Who is Skipper Ed?" inquired Mr. Winslow. "But never mind. Don'texplain now. You must be nearly starved if you've been adrift long. Comewith us."
"I've been over a week--nearly two weeks, I think," said Bobby, "but I'mnot hungry. I've had plenty of seals. Let me get my snow knife, sir.It's in the _igloo_."
Then they went with Bobby and marveled at his _igloo_, and his crudelamp, which they must have as a souvenir, and that Bobby had notperished. And praised him for a brave lad, as they led him off. AndBobby, who saw nothing wonderful or strange in his _igloo_ or lamp, oranything he had done, said little, but followed timidly. And when themen he had frightened so badly learned that Bobby was a castaway and avery real person and not a ghost at all, they vied with one another inshowering kindnesses upon him, for these men of the fleets, though a bitrough, and a bit superstitious at times, have big brave hearts, filledwith sympathy for their kind.
And so it came about that Bobby, who had come to the Coast a driftingwaif of the sea, was carried from it by the sea. And now he was to seethe land of strange trees and flowers and green fields of which SkipperEd had so often told when they sat in the big chairs before the fire onwinter evenings. And many other wonderful things were in store forBobby.