Part 17 (2/2)
Waring brought in a shovelful of embers from the dying fire outside, under whose ashes a goose, swathed in sea-weed, was preparing for supper, and Peter followed him with some small chunks of wood. The stove ”drew” beautifully, and but one drawback could be discovered--it made the atmosphere within too warm for comfort, at the then temperature. ”No matter that,” said Peter, prophetically; ”we glad see plenty fire here to-morrow night.”
It was nearly midnight when the four ate supper and gave the fragments to their faithful dog. Before sleeping, La Salle stepped outside the hut. The wind had lessened greatly, but still blew mildly warm from a southerly direction. ”We must now be somewhere off Shediac, but I see no open water, and the pack is as close as ever. We shan't get down to the capes with this wind, and to-morrow at this time, if the wind holds, we shall be up to Point Esc.u.menac. I don't care to think what next; but if, as Peter says, we are to have cold, westerly weather, we must move off into the open Gulf and then--Well, we shall endure what it pleases G.o.d to send us.”
Notwithstanding their fatigue, all were awake at daylight the next morning, and immediately the whole party ascended their lookout. The wind still blew in very nearly the same direction, but with little force, and at noon, as the party sat down to their first meal for the day, no land could be plainly determined, and for an hour the utmost calm prevailed, with an unclouded sun. The pack was still closed, however, with the exception of two or three small openings, in which were seen a seal and several flocks of moniac ducks, known on the Atlantic coast as ”South-Southerlies.” The former could not be approached, but Peter got two shots at the ducks as they gyrated over the berg, and killed three at one time and four at another, which were duly skinned, and the bodies consigned to the ”meat-safe,” a hole in the ice near the door.
This meal tasted a little better than the former ones, the birds being seasoned with salt procured from sea-water by boiling--a slow process, which La Salle promised to make easier when the next frost set in. The bird-skins had been carefully cleaned from fat, and sewed into two blankets about seven feet by five each, and stretched on the ice with the flesh side uppermost, were rubbed with salt and ashes, and then exposed to the sun, receiving considerable benefit thereby.
For supper, a soup of fowls thickened with grated biscuit was eaten with hearty relish by all but Waring, who claimed to have eaten too much at dinnertime, although La Salle fancied that he looked flushed and pale by turns.
”Do you feel sick, George?” said La Salle, anxiously, when the others were temporarily absent from the hut.
”O, no, Charley; don't fuss about me. I'm all right, only I've eaten a little too much of that fat meat, and taken scarcely any exercise,” was the reply.
”Well, George, don't fail to let me know at once if you do feel sick, for my stock of medicines is limited, and I must do my doctoring during the first stages of the disease,” said La Salle, gravely.
”Yes, I should judge so, doctor,” laughed Waring; and, turning to the fire, he placed another stick under the cylinder, as if suffering from a chill.
At an hour before sunset they saw on their left hand, and, as nearly as they could judge, about twelve miles away, the high headland of Esc.u.menac. The pack opened a little, for the wind had now been blowing for about three hours from the west, the air was very perceptibly colder, and the standing pools on the ice began to freeze. Under Le Salle's direction, Regnar cut a hole in the ice, which would hold about four pailsful of salt water, and filled it to overflowing, while Peter cut up a dozen of the decoys into junks three inches square, and piled them near the door.
As they entered the hut, they found Waring s.h.i.+vering over the fire. ”I am afraid, Charley,” stammered he, ”that I am going to be very sick, for I can't keep warm to save my life.”
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER XII.
DOCTORING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.--AN ANXIOUS NIGHT.--FROZEN UP.
La Salle examined the condition of his patient, and found his tongue furred, his pulse quick and feverish, his tonsils badly inflamed, and the chills alternating with flushes of fever heat. The mind of the patient, too, was anxious; for at the close of the brief examination he said, ”I hope I shan't be sick, for there isn't much show for me out here on the ice.”
”And why not, George? Although I hope you will have nothing more than a bad cold, yet I think I could cure a pretty sick man out here.”
”But we have no medicines, or beds, or food, or anything, scarcely.”
”What nonsense! We are far more comfortably housed than the poor Esquimaux, and even Peter there lives no warmer than we do--do you, Peter?”
”_Womegun_ hetter than this; but this place very comforble. _I_ no fraid freeze here.”
”Well, George, I must turn doctor now, and try to stop this cold; for as yet it is no worse. Peter, make a fire outside, and heat the iron bailer full of salt water. Regnie, reach me my powder-horn and the little tin cup of the lantern.”
Pouring four drachms of gunpowder into the cup, he filled it about half full of water, and setting it near the hot coals under the red hot cylinder, soon dissolved the explosive, forming an inky fluid. From the ammunition bucket he drew a small phial, which had been filled with olive oil, and pouring some hot water and a little shot into it, he soon cleaned it for the reception of the fluid, which he filtered through several thicknesses of his woolen gun-cover. About a fluid ounce of a rather dirty-looking solution of saltpeter resulted, to which a little sugar was added.
”Here we have,” said the man of drugs, ”some three drachms of saltpeter in solution, of which, by and by, you may take about one sixth, letting it gargle your throat going down. Peter, is the water hot?”
”Yes, broder, water boilin' hover. What do with him now?”
”I want to soak his feet; but what shall we do it in? I can fill my seal-skin boots, but they would be awkward.”
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