Part 29 (2/2)
His pockets at that , piteous letters from White Bay, meant to pull him to the other side of the island One of theht but eleven dollars' worth of fish all season, wound up with an appeal for oddments of clothes to put on the children, for ”We are all as naked as birds”
It was hard to say no to the heart-throbs of those begging letters in his pocket But Captain Cote's life was not one life It was the lives of thousands-- down to the sea in shi+ps, faring through the St Lawrence, and the Gulf, and then those terrible Straits of Belle Isle, to the Old Country
So we started But was Mrs Grenfell going to stay home with the piano, and French verbs, and her fancy-work, while the _Strathcona_ nosed the seething waters? Not on your life! Wilfred and Pascoe had a perfectly good governess, and while it was hard on them to remain behind with their books, their turn with Father was co, named Fritz, had no French verbs to study, and nojuer-list His berth was chiefly out on the end of the bowsprit--he was urehead There he could sniff the breeze, and see the shore, even when there wasn't any, and bark defiance at all the dogs and the sea-pusses
The _Strathcona_ used both steaed, with six sails--mainsail, foresail, two jibs, two topsails One of those topsails was a fancy, oblong thing which Dr Grenfell's crew ht it from the North Sea; they had never seen the likes of it before, and theirnew But the Doctor, who is restless on shi+pboard, clie contraption, andthe wind in such a way as to develop the last ounce of pulling power This was no pleasure cruise It was a run for life
The sea was a vast blue sered out of St Anthony Harbor What a fickle creature is that northern ocean! This was the first clear day in ever so long--and now the sun and the water were in conspiracy to pretend it had always been this gay, fair weather
The only bles, six in number, out yonder to starboard But they were dim and distant as we bore in toward the headland at Quirpon Tickle Quirpon is called ”Carpoon” by the fishermen because that isn't the way to pronounce it And Tickle has nothing to do with h Quite the contrary Itsnakewise through a channel that winds a the rocks You are perfectly sure you are about to ram the face of a wall--and then, lo and behold! there is a way out at the last minute, and it leads you to another wall and another rift that suddenly and ih
You have to think of the pirates who used to run and hide in places like that, and give the slip to honest sailorto run theht each other, which was vastly diverting to the pirates and perhaps just as satisfying to the about like happy children in the shalloaters near the shore I happened to be at the wheel, and my one idea was not to hit those sharp and cruel rocks, not to strike a fisherive the widest berth I could to the distant s
Grenfell, red-booted and broeatered, put his head in at the wheel-house door, and the wind ruffled his silver hair as he cried: ”Run her so close to those rocks that you all but skin her!”
You see, his mind was only on Captain Cote, with the choke in his throat, strangling and struggling, but going on with his duty as the keeper of the light with the beahty horn
In our race against ti coal, that precious commodity, then twenty-four dollars a ton,--and much more costly to-day Spruce and fir and juniper were piled on deck--some of the wood across the barrels of whale-meat, in a vain attempt to shut off the rotten sht, the night closed down like a lid on a box as we sounded our gingerly way through the perilous twistings of the Tickle The as rising, and as we looked backthe waves, running white and high at a ht If ent on, and came out into the Straits, the ould hold us there without an inch of gain, though we had the full power of the engines going and all sails set The _Strathcona_, a tiny steamer of less than fifty tons, was no match for the sea aroused in opposition It is a , with so many attempts of ice and rock to punch the life out of her wherever she went
Dr Grenfell, as his habit is on shi+pboard, rose at two, at three and at four to study his charts and lay out his course, and at twentyhands were at the wheel, on which are the words ”FollowFritz had been sleeping all night on a thick blue woolen blanket in the bunk below ularly as I turned hiht he would return indignantly ”What's the matter with you?” his wrinkled face see here What right have you to keep me out of a nice warm bed? You don't need this whole cabin, you selfish ave out and I let hies of the dawn, a fresh breeze blowing, we caly rock nahed Grenfell, ”ere blown across the ice--sled and dogs and all--ere trying to round up the reindeer herd We had the tiht a bunch of reindeer all the way from Lapland, and Lapp herders cas and prevent the natives fro theht before Christhted the children at the Orphanage where he ca sled behind a real team of reindeer
”But the reindeer spread all over the peninsula, and the Lapps couldn't keep track of their charges The hunters and the dogs were hard on the trail of the herd You couldn't blary men and famished aniive up their dogs and use reindeer instead The reindeer could draw sleds, and would give milk, and meat too, if necessary, and their furs would be valuable There wouldn't be any risk of their hurting children, or strangers, or sick people, and they wouldn't
”But at last, in order to save the remnant, it was necessary to -vessel and take theustine River country, where they could increase in peace, and the dogs would not bother them, and the Canadian Governht co
”It was a fine plan, on paper But it was like the old recipe fora rabbit pie--'first catch your hare' The reindeer having had the run of the open spaces so long saw no reason why they should be caught and put on a boat and carried off
”So they gave us a run for it, I can tell you! All over the place we rushed, shouting and trying to lasso or corner the terrified anihed so hard in uns, and you sireat many of the reindeer But a lot of them romped off into the woods and took to the hills and we never saw theain Since they were moved to Canada they have done well--and some day, when the people are ready to have them, I want to -teams with them”
Meanwhile the little shi+p had turned her head away froonal, to cross the straits in the bared teeth of the green and yeasty waves That she was top-heavy was plainly to be seen, with her barrels of whale-h-piled fire-wood on deck, and alo below
As we stood out into the reat boats thatin evil weather
They would have to be honking like wild geese, even though the straits at their narrowest between Flower's Cove and Greenley Island are tenup the East Coast on theTwillingate ere nearly wrecked three tiht ere ten miles offshore, we found a tiny skiff, with two persons aboard, in our path--we nearly ran it down Father and s for cod, and had their re catch in a tin pail Captain Kane had stopped our boat--ere going at quarter speed--and he had the e to shohere the land lay ”Out yonder!” The ancient mariner pointed to the northwest
A rowboat was manned: in a few minutes its crew came back and reported that the rocks were not more than two hundred yards away So we backed off, and steamed hard in the opposite direction But only an hour or so later,--pulled steadily on and on toward the shore, by the strong, insetting tide,-- the grey edge of the fog lifting like a table-cloth, and there were those cruel rocks again, dragons in a lair, waiting to receive us, crush our bones and drink our blood
Again we backed away--and before long the fierce jangle of the bell in the engine rooe once more halted us suddenly There, directly before our proas a great white wall of ice, which had taken al that barred our path, and if we had been speeding like the _titanic_ instead of creeping like a snail, it would doubtless have been the end of the _Inver shi+p