Part 28 (1/2)
”Look here, my man,” said the doctor; and his nephew got behind him.
”Yes, and look here,” said Scudds. ”You want to diskiver the North Pole, don't yer?”
”Well, you are very impertinent, my man,” said the doctor; ”but, yes. I do.”
”Then you shall diskiver it along o' the skipper, and young stowaway there.”
”And what will you do?” said the doctor.
”Oh,” said Scudds, ”me, and Borstick, and my mates is agoin' back.
We've had enough of it, I tell yer.”
”But how are we to go on without you?” said the doctor.
”I'll show yer,” said Scudds. ”Now mates!”
To my intense horror, and in spite of my struggles, they seized us all three; and then, with a lot of laughing and cheering, they brought up some pieces of rope, and three good-sized blocks of ice.
”What are you going to do, scoundels?” I shrieked.
”Well,” said Scudds, grinning, ”my mates and me's of opinion that the North Pole is down in the hole, and we're agoin' to send you three there to see.”
”But it's murder!” I cried.
”It's in the service of science,” said the doctor, blandly. ”We shall make great discoveries. You won't mind, Alfred?” he said, to his nephew.
”I should have been delighted, uncle, if I had only procured my skates,”
said the young fellow.
”These here's better than skates,” said Scudds, grinning; and, to my extreme horror, they bound the young man to a block of ice, carried it to the edge of the crater, gave it a slight push, and away it went down, and down, rapidly gliding till it entered the dark mist toward the bottom.
”He'll discover it first,” said the doctor, calmly.
”But no one will know,” I said, bitterly.
”We may get up again first,” he said, radiantly, as the men tied him on in his turn.
”Good luck to you, if you do,” said Scudds, grinning, as he tied the last knot binding the stout old fellow to the second block of ice.
”_Au revoir_, Captain!” said the doctor, smiling; and then they pushed him on to the inclined way, and he glided off, waving his hand as he went, till he was nearly half-way down, and then the crew seized me.
”Not without a struggle!” I said; and seizing an iron bar used for breaking ice, I laid about me, knocking one fellow after another down, and sending them gliding over the sides of the awful gulf, till only Scudds remained behind.
”Not yet, skipper!” he cried, avoiding my blow, and springing at my throat--”not yet;” and the next minute we were engaged in a desperate struggle, each trying with all his might to get the other to the edge of that awful slope, and hurl him down.