Part 20 (2/2)
Grenfell a bottle of the same kind of matches, and he said: ”I'd rather have those than a five-dollar bill” If no air is stirring they will burn with a tall, strong flame for a minute or more, clean down to the bottom
He laid the matches out to dry, and looked about for a piece of transparent ice which would do for a burning glass With the tow he had stuffed into his leggings, and the fat froht he could produce a pluht He found a piece of ice which he thought would serve his purpose, and was just about to wave his ”flag” again when he saw so that made his heart stand still for an instant
Was it--could it be--the glitter of an oar-blade rising and falling?
But no--it could not be It was not clear water, but the ”slob ice,”
probably too heavy for a rowboat to pierce, which lay between the pan and the beach There had been no sed, no fire kindled: one of these things would be sure to happen, had anybody caught sight of him or of the unwieldy banner that he had raised aloft so many times
By this tilasses As he raised his ”flag” again, however, it seelitter wasnearer With his hopes now h as he could, and waved with all his ht Now he could see not only a white oar-blade, but a black hull If the pan would hold together an hour more, his rescue was assured
Queer tricks the mind of a ht sohelmets, pistols and belt-buckles froht for souvenirs Even in the hospital where they lay suffering with the most dreadful wounds, they were more anxious for those precious relics than they were for their own recovery
And so, co: ”I wonder what trophies I can save, to take home and put up in -bone flagstaff, hanging over the big fireplace in the living-roos ”beat him to it,” and devoured the bones with relish, as a child would eat candy) Then he thought how picturesque those queer puttees would look, hanging on the ith snowshoes and lynx-skins The ”burning-glass” was forgotten where it lay As a reception-co the speech of welcoed leopard in the Zoo at feeding-time They couldn't very welltales he had read when he was a boy, of a man on a desert island who scanned the horizon ,him to utter despair He did not intend that this should happen to hiht, he could see that the rescuers by this tinals Presently he could hear theet excited! Keep on the pan where you are!”
They were far more excited than he was: for it now seemed as natural to Grenfell to be saved as, a little while before, it had seeood men had been sed up before hireat waters Nearer and nearer they ca the oars valiantly, till the snub nose of the boat was thrust into the soft edge of the pan, as a dog's muzzle is thrust into a man's hand
The man in the bow jumped from the boat and took both of the Doctor's hands Neither said a word At such moments men do not care much to speak You restone, and in the thrilling ether Stanley simply walked up to the stone, I presume?”
But the tears rolled down the cheeks of the honest fisherht a bottle of warood it did Grenfell after going without food and drink so long a ti ar, stalwart Newfoundlanders were at the oars,--all of the that they had come in time to save him How often, in a dark hour, he had proved hiht to help them and their families: they kneas on his way to aid one of their nu they would not do for him: it would be a sratitude already
It wasn't all plain rowing, by any et jammed in the ice-pack so that they all must clamber out and lift the stout vessel over the pans Sometimestheir oars after the fashi+on of crowbars For a long tiht onward very little was said
They were saving their breath for their work But as they rested on their oars and mopped their broith their tattered sleeves, Grenfell asked: ”How under the sun did you happen to be out in the ice in this boat?”
They said that on the night before four et so the winter As they were starting ho on it, drifting out to sea When they got back to the village, and told their neighbors, the latter said it must be just the top of a tree There was one lass
He left his supper instantly, and ran out to the edge of the cliffs
Yes, he said, there was a man out yonder on the ice He could see him wave his arms--and he declared it
Even though night was falling, and the as co on, they wanted to launch a boat, but it would have been no use: and they decided to wait untilthem on the beach, just as it used to throw the little fishi+ng-smacks over the sea-wall at Grenfell's boyhood hoers went up and down the coast: look-outs were stationed: , all the while that Grenfell thought nobody saw hi in vain
Before daybreak, these five volunteers hadwaters Just a little while before, a fisherood-by to her husband and three sons when they started to row out toward a shi+p that was signaling with flags for a pilot All four were drowned in spite of their cool and skilful seamanshi+p
The people had co They rushed into the surf to be the first to shake the Doctor's hands They seized them and shook them so heartily that he did not find out till later that they had been badly frost-bitten It was not a pretty object the villagers greeted Says the Doctor: ”I ht as I stepped ashore, tied up in rags, stuffed out with oakus, with no hat, coat, or gloves besides, and only a pair of short knickers It must have see ashore”
[Illustration: WHO SAID ”HALT”?]
Copious draughts of hot tea, and alht spot Grenfell as a veteran ise enough not to eat too er, after one has been without food so long
They dressed Grenfell in the warm clothes fishermen wear, and hauled him back to the St Anthony hospital That ride was no fun at all The jolting racked his weary bones and his feet were so frozen that he could not walk There, two days later, they brought to him the boy on whom he was to have operated at his own hos lived long and pulled the Doctor ues on errands of mercy: but he ht survive I have seen on the glass-enclosed veranda of the Doctor's home at St Anthony the brass tablet with its inscription:
_TO THE MEMORY OF Three noble Dogs MOODY WATCH SPY Whose Lives Were Given For Mine on the Ice April 21st, 1908 Wilfred Grenfell St Anthony_