Part 20 (2/2)
”I must tell Jarvis,” said the boy to himself. ”It will please him to know that he was right.”
And that night, while they glided silently back toward the native village they had left not many hours before, leaving the treasure city a mystery unexplained, he _did_ tell Jarvis. As he finished, the old man's face lighted.
”The thing that's troublin' me just now,” he said slowly, ”is the question of th' two bloomin' 'eathen that faded from h'our h'eyes. H'I 'ates to think they live, an' h'I 'ates to trust my 'opes they're done for. If they're h'alive, they may get the treasure yet, an' h'I 'ates t'
be beat by a b.l.o.o.d.y, bloomin' 'eathen.”
”They're a long way from home base,” said Dave with a grin. ”They may find the treasure, but getting it home's another thing.”
”I want you to know,” he went on, huskily, ”that I appreciate your standing by me, and if we get out of this alive, you and I, with our discharge papers, I promise I'll be your partner in this new enterprise--the quest for treasure; that is, if you'll take me on.”
”Will h'I?” Jarvis sprang to his feet, a new glad light in his eye. ”Will h'I? 'Ere, give us a 'and on that. H'and we'll win, lad; we'll win! An'
that in spite of th' bloomin' 'eathen!”
It was early the next morning that the Doctor, who was enjoying, with the gobs, the native festival of rejoicing over the killing of the great, and to them unknown, beast which had attacked their reindeer herds, he noticed a young native come running from the direction of the sea. He paused now and again to shout:
”Tomai! Tomai!” which was the native call for the arrival of a boat.
Instantly the crowd was thrown into commotion. Natives rushed hither and thither. But the white men realized at once that this could mean nothing less than the return of the submarine, and, while they did not at all understand it, they whooped their joy and rushed toward the sh.o.r.e to see a dark body rounding the point.
”The sub! The sub! Hurray! Hurray!” they shouted, tossing their caps high in air. And the submarine indeed it was. Dave and Jarvis were overjoyed to rejoin their companions.
The stories of adventure were soon told and then everyone was set to hustling the last bit of equipment on board. There would be neither meals nor sleep until everything was in readiness and they were away.
As the Doctor and Dave stood on deck watching the casting off of the ropes, the Doctor spoke of his plans.
”We may have lost the race,” he remarked rather grimly, ”but we're going to the Pole just the same. It will mean something to you boys, at least, to be able to say that you've been there. It was my purpose to lay our course directly for the Pole without establis.h.i.+ng a base, but since we have been carried out of our way so far, and have used so much fuel, I feel that it will be wise to head for the farthest-north point of Alaska--Point Barrow.
”I was a.s.sured, in Nome, that there were two oil-burning whalers wintering near there, and I have no doubt that we can depend on them for extra fuel.”
The hatches were lowered, the submarine sank from sight amid the ”Ah-ne-ca's” and ”Mat-na's” of the awe stricken natives who lined the cliffs a half-mile away. The sub, with all on board, was again on its way to enter the race for the Pole.
”The race is on,” said Dave.
”I wonder?” smiled the Doctor.
Three times they rose in dark waterways for air. The fourth time it seemed they must be nearing land--
Yes, as the submarine b.u.mped the edge of an ice-floe, a point of land showed plainly to port.
Dave, with field-gla.s.s in hand, sprang to the nearest ice-cake, then climbed to a pinnacle to take an observation.
”Clear water to the left of us,” he reported.
”Too close ash.o.r.e?” asked the Doctor.
”I think not,” was Dave's answer. ”We'll have to submerge for three or four miles; then we'll be clear of the ice.”
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