Part 11 (1/2)

”Have to swim for it,” said Donovan.

”Not in this icy water, I hope,” said Kit. ”Can't we devise a plan to capture it?”

”They might tie a belaying-pin to the end of a line, and throw it into the boat,” said the captain.

”Or, better still, one of those long cod-lines with the heavy sinker and hook on it,” suggested Hobbs.

”Just the thing!” exclaimed Capt. Mazard. ”Sing out to them!”

”Unless I'm mistaken, that is just what old Trull is up to now,” said Wade. ”He's throwing something! see that!”

As Wade said, old man Trull was throwing a line, with what turned out to be one of our small grapnels attached. The first throw fell short, and the line was drawn in; the second and third went aside; but the fourth landed the grapnel in the boat. It was hauled in. Weymouth and Corliss then got aboard, and came off to us.

”Well, boys, what sort of a dry storm have you been having here?” said the captain as they came up under where we stood.

”Never saw such a hole!” exclaimed Weymouth. ”You don't know how we were slat about! We went _right up on it_! Had to pay out six fathoms of extra cable, anyway. D'ye mind what a thundering noise that ice made?”

We went off to the schooner. Trull stood awaiting us, grinning grimly.

”I don't gen'ly give advice to my betters,” he began, with a hitch at his trousers; ”but”--

”You'd be getting out of this?” finished Raed.

”I wud, sur.”

There was a general laugh all round. But the wind had set dead in the south-east again. There was no room for tacking in the narrow inlet.

To get out we should have to tow the schooner a mile against the wind,--among ice too. Clearly we must lay here till the wind favored.

We concluded, however, to change our position for one a little lower down, and nearer the middle of the cove. The anchor was heaved up preparatory to towing the vessel along. The men had considerable difficulty in starting it off the bottom; and, on getting it up, one of the flukes was found to be chipped off,--bits as large as one's fist, probably from catching among jagged rocks at the bottom. We thought that this might also account for the tenacity with which the anchor held against the tide. Doubtless there were crevices and cracks, with great bowlders, scattered about on the bottom of the cove. Towing ”The Curlew” back not far from a hundred yards from our first berth, the anchor was again let go in thirty-seven fathoms; and, for additional security, a second cable was bent to our extra anchor, which we dropped out of the stern. This matter, with arrangements for heaving the anchor up with tackle and fall (for we had no windla.s.s in the stern), took up the time till considerably past noon.

CHAPTER V.

A Dead Narwhal.--Snowy Owls.--Two Bears in Sight.--Firing on them with the Howitzer.--A Bear-Hunt among the Ice.--An Ice ”Jungle.”--An Exciting Chase.--The Bear turns.--Palmleaf makes ”a Sure Shot.”--”Run, you Black Son!”

About two o'clock a dead narwhal came floating out with the ice from the north-east arm, and pa.s.sed quite near the schooner,--so near, that we could judge pretty accurately as to its length, which we estimated to be twenty or twenty-two feet; and its horn, or tusk, which was partly under water, could not have been less than five feet.

”Killed among the ice there, I reckon,” said Capt. Mazard. ”Crushed up. I should not wonder if there were a great many large fish killed so.”

It seemed not improbable; for we had seen several snowy owls hovering over the ice-packs; and, about an hour afterwards, as we were reading in the cabin, Weymouth came down to say that a couple of bears were in sight up there among the ice. We went up immediately. None of us had ever seen a white bear, save at menageries, where they had to keep the poor brutes dripping with ice-water, they were so near roasting with our climate. To see a white bear prowling in his native ice-fastnesses was, therefore, a novel spectacle for us.

They were distant from the schooner, at a rough guess, five hundred yards, and seemed to have a good deal of business about a hole, or chasm, among the loose ice at some distance up the arm.

”Seal or a dead finner in there, I'll be bound,” said the captain.

”Now, boys, there's a chance for a bear-hunt!”

”Suppose we give 'em a shot from my cannon-rifle,” I suggested.

”Better take the howitzer,” said Raed. ”Load it with a grist of those bullets.”