Part 29 (1/2)
”No, indeed, sir!” said La Salle. ”Tumble up, my men. Take your guns and your coats with you. Here, Nep; up that ladder, sir. That's right. Can you take our boat aboard?”
”Come right up, sur; dere's no fear of her. I'll have her aboord in tin minutes. Here comes de mate. What's your name, sur? La Salle? Yis, sur!
Mister Blake, sur; Mister La Salle, sur.”
”Happy to see you, Mr. La Salle. I've learnt enough about you to know that you have been adrift nearly two weeks, and as dinner's ready we must have you into the cabin. I am sorry that but one berth is vacant, and your friends will have to take their chance in the forecastle.”
”If you please, I had rather have you extend your courtesy to Mr. George Waring, a son of Mr. Albert Waring, of C., who does a large business with your St. John's fis.h.i.+ng firms. He has been the only one of us who has been sick, and--”
”There, Mr. Blake,” interposed Waring, ”don't listen to him; take him with you. Why, I am as strong as an ox now, and you'll find him far better company than I am.”
Pa.s.sing aft through gangways crowded with brawny, hardy-looking sealers, La Salle followed his conductor to the cabin, where he found six or eight men gathered around a table plentifully supplied with the usual provisions found on board s.h.i.+ps in the merchant service. After being introduced to all present, who greeted him with a rude civility, Mr.
Blake invited him to ”fall to and help himself.”
It is needless to say that he required no pressing in this direction.
”Hard tack” and ”salt horse,” with potatoes, soft bread, and chicory coffee sweetened with mola.s.ses, seemed food fit for the G.o.ds, after the greasy meat-diet of the last eleven days; and his companions considerately refrained from questioning him until his hunger was satisfied. At last he drew back his chair, lit a cigar offered him by one of the officers, and turning to the mate said, laughingly,--
”Fire away, gentlemen--I'm ready.”
After narrating the princ.i.p.al events of their voyage so far as he deemed prudent, he concluded as follows:--
”Two or three days ago we fell in with large sealing-floes, and among them one where a sealer had killed several hundred seals. A boat-hook, which you will find in our boat, bore this signal. Am I right in supposing that this is the name of your vessel?” and so saying he drew from his pocket the tiny pennon.
”It is ours, and we have been trying for a week to recover our skins, as well as the body of Captain Randall, whom we lost eight days ago.”
Not a muscle of La Salle's face betrayed any emotion save that of interest, as he asked,--
”Lost your captain! And how, pray?”
At that moment a noise was heard in the inner cabin, as if several men were struggling; all at once the door flew open, and, with difficulty restrained by the utmost efforts of two powerful men, a pale, unshorn face, surmounting a wild and scantily-dressed figure, appeared to the party, none of whom started save La Salle, who almost fancied that the dead man, sealed up in the caverns of the ice, had come back again to his quarters on board the Mercedes. Crying out, ”I couldn't save him! I couldn't save him!” the intruder was dragged, struggling and raving, back to his berth.
”Poor George! he takes the death of his brother sadly to heart. He was mate, and the other day they left the floe together, to ascend a large berg at some distance from our whaling-ground. We saw them on the top, after which they disappeared, going to the opposite side by which they had ascended. Shortly after we heard several rifle shots fired in quick succession, and then George came running towards us, shouting that his brother had fallen between the floes, and was drowning.
”We ran to the spot, and found a place between two floes where the ice was much broken up, as if some one had tried to catch something with a boat-hook; and Randall told us that his brother had fallen through and been carried under the ice before he could get to him. We broke the ice all around, but to no purpose; and then our lookouts discovered that we were in danger of getting nipped on the other side of the Magdalens. So we returned to the s.h.i.+p with George, sadly enough.”
”Why were the rifle-shots fired? to call for a.s.sistance?” asked La Salle.
”Yes. None of our men have the rifle, although many are supplied with the old sealing-gun. We therefore agreed among the officers that three shots, fired in rapid succession, should call a.s.sistance in case of danger, or trouble with the men. Our rifles are all breech-loading carbines, and we can fire with great rapidity.”
”Do you find them of service among the seals?”
”Yes, especially with the 'old hoods;' and poor Captain Randall, who spent some years in Europe, had his ammunition fitted so that the bullets explode on striking a bone. They tear a terrible hole in a seal, I a.s.sure you.”
”Indeed! I never saw one of them, although it seems to me that I have read of the invention. Have you any of the bullets here? for I suppose the rifle was lost at the same time.”
The sailing-master, or rather pilot, a short, thick-set Newfoundlander, took up the conversation.
”Dere's de rifle now, hangin' over your head. De captain was ailin', an'