Part 24 (1/2)
Returning rather hastily, the party reached their quarters just at dusk, and lighting their lamp, made some weak, but very hot, coffee, the greatest treat which their limited variety of comestibles afforded.
Peter busied himself with cleaning and inflating a number of the larger entrails and membranous viscera of the hooded seal. These were for life-preservers, and vessels for the preservation of water and oil in their antic.i.p.ated boat-voyage. Regnar cut out no less than three pairs of moccason-boots, choosing the thickest skins, and then prepared them with the brain-paste for curing in the mild warmth of the air around the chimney. Waring cleansed the cooking utensils, and made up some bundles of fir-twigs to cover the bottom of the boat, and La Salle wrote up his diary, sharpened an axe, fitted a strip of pine board for a sprit to the blanket sail, and as bedtime drew near, went out to take a last look at the weather.
It was quite cold, and the wind, although light, was from the north-west, as near as could be judged without a compa.s.s. As Peter had noted a change of wind about midday, the pack had probably again changed its course of drift from east to south-east, or, perhaps, a point farther south, as the general course of the current in that part of the Gulf ran from south-south-east to south.
Returning to his companions, he communicated these details, closing by saying,--
”As I think, we are now about due west of the Magdalen group; and if this wind holds, we shall probably pa.s.s Amherst Island during the next twenty-four hours. If in sight, we must try to push through the ice to land, for the whole sh.o.r.e is inhabited. As many sealers should now be in this part of the Gulf, we should always be upon the watch for them.”
”I think,” said Waring, ”that we ought to keep one man as a lookout on the highest ice in the vicinity.”
”Pity the great iceberg so far off,” added Regnar.
”Sposum wind hold north-west, and ice keep packed, why not go down to-morrow and look alound?” asked Peter, quietly.
”If these westerly winds hold, there will be no danger in so doing, if, as I guess, the pack extends from here to the sh.o.r.e of the Magdalens. If so, we are not likely to find any sealers to the eastward, unless they have got jammed in the pack; and probably that steamer we saw the other day has pa.s.sed to the south, and will make to westward before another southerly gale comes to open the ice.”
”You right, master,” said Regnar. ”We go to-morrow to berg; see great ways from there, if we can get up. 'Nother thing we ought to do--move off this floe before next gale, else get house broken, and lose many things.”
”Pooh!” said Waring, carelessly; ”this berg would last a month yet.”
”I risk this _h_ice, more'n twenty, tirty feet tick. Sea no break this up.”
Orloff's eyes flashed, and he seemed about to make some angry reply, but with a visible effort to restrain himself, signed to La Salle to follow him, and went out of the hut. La Salle found him on the summit of the lookout, gazing out over the star-lit sea.
”I was angry, and came near forgetting the part I play,” said he, bitterly, in French; ”but they know nothing of ice-lore, and I should not be angry at them for believing that this heavy bit of ice, although not as large as those around us, is equally as safe.”
”And why is it not?” asked La Salle.
”Because,” answered the lad, ”this floe is of snow-ice, probably pierced by dozens of hidden cavities. I fancied the other night that I heard a ripple of water beneath me, as I have heard it in winter when seeking the hidden streams beneath the glaciers, but I did not hear it again, and may have been mistaken.”
”Well, we are safe, I suppose, as long as we lie deep in the pack.”
Regnar smiled pityingly.
”Do you see the kind of ice which surrounds us now--those heavy floes, hard, flinty, and widespread, and that berg, gigantic, and almost as hard as gla.s.s? Well, if we have a heavy blow from the north-west, we shall be jammed between the ice now resting on the Magdalens and those Greenland monsters yonder, and if there is a weak spot in our berg--”
”Well, what then, Regnie?”
”We shall be ground to powder, or, at least, our berg will; and in such a break-up, we shall have little chance to save anything except our lives.”
”What, then, ought we to do?”
”We must be ready to move as soon as we crush in through this thin ice,”
said Regnar, pointing to the new ice and broken fragments over which they had crossed at dark. ”Let us put our guns and food in the boat, and have her already for use; by morning we shall have a heavy nip, or a s.h.i.+ft of wind, and in either case we ought to change our quarters.”
As they turned to descend the hummock, a crack was heard, and a large part of the berg fell with a terrible crash. Peter and Waring rushed from the hut with cries of terror, and Carlo, whining with fear, bounded up the slope, as if to seek protection from his master. Regnar was the first to recover his coolness.
”Let us see what damage is done now,” said he; and descending, he seized an oar and a rope, and went to the verge of the chasm. La Salle rushed into the hut, lighted his lantern, and joined Regnar, who was fastening the rope around his waist. ”I don't think there is much danger, but if I get in, haul me out,” said he, giving the coil into La Salle's keeping; and seizing the lantern, he leaped down upon the severed portion.