Part 25 (1/2)
said Captain Ellice, who had hitherto looked on with a sly smile. ”More than a year ago, when I was driven past this place to the northward, I took advantage of a calm to land a supply of food, and a few stores and medicines, to be a stand-by in case my s.h.i.+p should be wrecked to the northward. Ever since the wreck actually took place I have looked forward to this _cache_ of provisions as a point of refuge on my way south. As I have already told you, I have never been able to commence the southward journey; and now I don't require these things, which is lucky, for the bears seem to have appropriated them entirely.”
”Had I known of them sooner, captain,” said Captain Guy, ”the bears should not have had a chance.”
”That accounts for the supply of tobacco and sticking-plaster we found in the bear's stomach,” remarked Fred, laughing.
”True, boy; yet it surprises me that they succeeded in breaking into my _cache_, for it was made of heavy ma.s.ses of stone, many of which required two and three men to lift them, even with the aid of handspikes.”
”What's wrong with O'Riley?” said Fred, pointing to that eccentric individual, who was gazing intently at the bears, muttering between his teeth, and clinching his cudgel nervously.
”Sure it's a cryin' shame,” he soliloquized in an undertone, quite unconscious that he was observed, ”that ye should escape, ye villains.
Av I only had a musket now--but I han't. Arrah! av it was only a spear.
Be the mortial! I think I could crack the skull o' the small wan! Faix, then, I'll try!”
At the last word, before any one was aware of his intentions, this son of Erin, whose blood was now up, sprang down the cliffs towards the bears, flouris.h.i.+ng his stick, and shouting wildly as he went. The bears instantly paused in their game, but showed no disposition to retreat.
”Come back, you madman!” shouted the captain; but the captain shouted in vain.
”Stop! halt! come back!” chorused the crew.
But O'Riley was deaf. He had advanced to within a few yards of the bears, and was rus.h.i.+ng forward to make a vigorous attack on the little one.
”He'll be killed!” exclaimed Fred in dismay.
”Follow me, men,” shouted the captain, as he leaped the ridge: ”make all the noise you can.”
In a moment the surrounding cliffs were reverberating with the loud halloos and frantic yells of the men, as they burst suddenly over the ridge, and poured down upon the bears like a torrent of maniacs.
Bold though they were, they couldn't stand this. They turned tail and fled, followed by the disappointed howls of O'Riley, and also by his cudgel, which he hurled violently after them as he pulled up.
Having thus triumphantly put the enemy to flight, the party continued their ascent of the hill, and soon gained the summit.
”There it is!” shouted Fred, who, in company with Mivins, first crossed the ridge, and tossed his arms in the air.
The men cheered loudly as they hurried up and one by one emerged into a red glow of suns.h.i.+ne. It could not be termed _warm_, for it had no power in that frosty atmosphere, and only a small portion of the sun's disk was visible. But his _light_ was on every crag and peak around; and as the men sat down in groups, and, as it were, bathed in the suns.h.i.+ne, winking at the bright gleam of light with half-closed eyes, they declared that it _felt_ warm, and wouldn't hear anything to the contrary, although Saunders, true to his nature, endeavoured to prove to them that the infinitely small degree of heat imparted by such feeble rays could not by any possibility be _felt_ except in imagination. But Saunders was outvoted. Indeed, under the circ.u.mstances, he had not a chance of proving his point; for the more warm the dispute became, the greater was the amount of animal heat that was created, to be placed, falsely, to the credit of the sun.
Patience, however, is a virtue which is sure to meet with a reward. The point which Saunders failed to prove by argument, was pretty well proved to every one (though not admitted) by the agency of John Frost. That remarkably bitter individual nestled round the men as they sat sunning themselves, and soon compelled them to leap up and apply to other sources for heat. They danced about vigorously, and again took to leap-frog. Then they tried their powers at the old familiar games of home. Hop-step-and-jump raised the animal thermometer considerably, and the standing leap, running leap, and high leap sent it up many degrees.
But a general race brought them almost to a summer temperature, and at the same time, most unexpectedly, secured to them a hare! This little creature, of which very few had yet been procured, darted in an evil hour out from behind a rock right in front of the men, who, having begun the race for sport, now continued it energetically for profit. A dozen sticks were hurled at the luckless hare, and one of these felled it to the ground.
After this they returned home in triumph, keeping up all the way an animated dispute as to the amount of heat shed upon them by the sun, and upon that knotty question, ”Who killed the hare?”
Neither point was settled when they reached the _Dolphin_, and, we may add, for the sake of the curious reader, neither point is settled yet.
CHAPTER XXII.
_The ”Arctic Sun”--Rats! rats! rats!--A hunting-party--Out on the floes--Hards.h.i.+ps._
Among the many schemes that were planned and carried out for lightening the long hours of confinement to their wooden home in the Arctic Regions, was the newspaper started by Fred Ellice, and named, as we have already mentioned, the _Arctic Sun_.
It was so named because, as Fred stated in his first leading article, it was intended to throw light on many things at a time when there was no other sun to cheer them. We cannot help regretting that it is not in our power to present a copy of this well-thumbed periodical to our readers; but being of opinion that _something_ is better than _nothing_, we transcribe the following extract as a specimen of the contributions from the forecastle. It was ent.i.tled--