Seven Frozen Sailors Part 2

"Why, it's Smith!" exclaimed the doctor.

"Water--food!" gasped the poor wretch, lying prostrate on his side.

These were given him, and the doctor added some spirit, with the effect that the poor fellow began to revive, and at last sat up on the deck.

"And how did you get here?" I said.

"Got on board at night!" he gasped. "Crept into the cask--meant to get out--but packed in!"

"Did I not refuse you permission to come, sir?" cried the doctor, shaking his fist.

"Yes, uncle!" gasped the stowaway; "but f.a.n.n.y said, if I didn't come and take care of you, she--she would never--speak to me--any more! Oh, dear! please stop the ship! I feel so poorly!"

"It's a wonder you were not starved to death," said the doctor.

"Or smothered," I said.

"Ye-yes," stammered the poor fellow. "I was all right till they packed things all round me, and then I couldn't get out!"

"Shall we put the ghost specimen in the spirit cask, doctor?" I said.

"Well, no," he replied. "I think we'll let him go down to the cabin.

But you'd no business to come, Alfred, for you'll only be in the way."

"Oh, no, uncle," he said, rapidly getting better, between the qualms produced by the rolling of the steamer; "I shall be a great help to you, uncle. I've brought my Alpenstock, a two-jointed one like a fishing-rod; and--and my ice-boots that I wore in Switzerland."

"Bah!" said the doctor.

"And a climbing-rope."

"Pish!" exclaimed the doctor again.

"And--a pair of snow-shoes."

"Did you bring your skates, sir?"

"No, uncle; f.a.n.n.y wanted me to, because she said I skated so beautifully; but I knew you had come on business, so I left them behind."

The doctor gave me a fat smile, and I turned round to check Scudds, for fear he should laugh outright; and lucky I did, for he was just getting ready for a tremendous roar, while Abram Bostock held his hands over his mouth.

"Well, get below," said the doctor; "and the sooner you find your sea-legs the better."

So our new member of the exploring expedition crawled below, and we set to and trimmed sails, for the weather was changing, steam being reserved till we wanted it to go through the ice.

We did not get along very fast, for the doctor was always stopping the vessel for something, and the men soon fell in with his whims, and began to enjoy helping him. One day, they would be busy bucketing up water, for him to fill bottles with specimens of whales' food; another time, we tried after a whale with a small gun and a harpoon fired from it, to the great delight of the men. Then we came in sight of the first iceberg, slowly sailing south, like a fairy castle on a fairy rock, that had broken away from its land in the North, and taken to the sea. The sun was shining upon it, and it was like one grand ma.s.s of turrets and spires, glistening with silver, gold, and gems of every colour. Here and there, it was split into great openings, with arches over them like bridges; and near the sea were more archways, leading like into caves, and all these places were of the most deep sapphire blue. All was so beautiful, that even the old salts like Abram and Scudds said they had never seen anything like it up North.

Of course, the doctor couldn't pa.s.s it without landing; and as there were some seals and a few birds sitting on the farther side, I ran the steamer close in, till, in the still water on the lee, we were able to bring her close alongside of what was just like a natural wharf of ice; when Scudds and four more got on the berg, a couple of ice-anchors were pa.s.sed over to them, and soon after we were made fast, and the doctor took a gun, his nephew followed, and we had a good climb along the wonderful sides of the iceberg.

"If we could only get on the top I wouldn't mind," said the doctor, after making half a dozen tries; but every one was a failure, for it was for all the world like climbing the side of a slippery board.

"Suppose you did get up, sir--what then?" I said.

"What then, Captain Cookson? Why, I could take observations; notice the structure of the ice; chip off specimens; but I suppose I must be disappointed."

But he was not, for when toward evening we were sitting on deck, I said to him, "I suppose we may cast loose now, doctor, and get on?" there suddenly came a strange sc.r.a.ping noise, and a peculiar motion of the ship.

"Cut away those ice-cables!" I roared, running to get an axe, for I scented the danger.

But I was too late, and stopped paralysed, holding on by one of the shrouds! for I suddenly woke to the fact that in going close in to the visible part of the iceberg, we had sailed in over a part of it that was under water, and now the huge ma.s.s of ice having grown top-heavy, it was slowly rolling over, but fortunately away from us, though the result seemed to threaten destruction.

Almost before I knew where I was, the steamer began to sway over to starboard; then I saw that we were lifted out of the water; and as the men gave a cry of horror, we rose higher, and higher, and higher, as the great berg rolled slowly over till we were quite a couple of hundred feet in the air, perched on almost an even keel in a narrow V-marked valley, with the ice rising as high as the main yard on either side, and the little valley we were in running steeply down to the sea.

We all remained speechless, clinging to that which was nearest, and the motion made the doctor's nephew exceedingly ill; but as for the doctor, he was standing note-book in hand, exclaiming, "Wonderful! Magnificent!

Captain, I would not have missed such a phenomenon for the world!"

"Other world, you mean, sir!" I said, with a gasp of horror. "We shall never reach home again!"

"Nonsense, man," he said. "Why, this ice will melt in less than a month, and let us down."

"Or turn over the other way, and finish us off, sir!" I said, gloomily.

"Meanwhile, captain, I am up on the top of the iceberg, and can make my meteorological observations. Alfred, bring me the glaceoscope. Hang the fellow, he's always poorly when I want him. Captain, will you oblige?"

I stood staring at him for a few moments, astonished at his coolness.

"The long bra.s.s instrument," he said, "out of the case numbered four, in the cabin."

I went and fetched the instrument, the men looking as much astounded as I was myself to see the doctor going coolly to work examining the structure of the ice, with its curious water-worn face. Then he seemed to be making measurements, and he ended by coming to us, rubbing his hands.

"Curious position, isn't it!" he said, laughing. "By the way, captain, I should cast off those ice-anchors, in case the iceberg should make another turn. They might be the cause of mischief."

"Cause of mischief! Hark at him!" said Abram. "When we're perched two hundred foot up here in the air! Come on, lads."

The ice-anchors were taken out of the holes that had been cut for them, and were got on board as we settled down for the night, no man feeling disposed to sleep; and all this while we were drifting slowly with the stream farther and farther south.

This went on for four days, and then, one night, I remember thinking, as I lay on deck, that could we be sure of the ice melting slowly at the top, and letting us down, we should be safe; but I knew that the bottom melted faster in the warm water, then the top grew heavier, and over it went again.

I tried very hard to keep awake in case of danger; but it was of no use, for I was worn out with watching, and at last I went off soundly to sleep, dreaming that I was drowned, and living in an ice cave, fish fashion, at the bottom of the sea, when I was awakened by Scudds, who shook me, crying, "Wake up, skipper! she's a-going to launch herself!"

I jumped to my feet, to find the doctor on deck, lecturing his nephew about the launching of ships, and pointing out the gradual slope down of the ice valley in which we lay.

"She's shifted two foot!" said Scudds. "I felt her move!"

"Batten down the hatches!" I roared, seeing what was coming; and as soon as this was done, and the ship made water-tight, I gave fresh orders for every man to lash himself fast to the shrouds and belaying-pins, while I myself secured the doctor and his nephew, neither of them seeing the slightest danger in what was to come.

Hardly had I done this, than there was a strange creaking, scratching noise, as of iron pa.s.sing over ice; and then we felt that the vessel was in motion, gilding down the horrible precipice toward the sea.

At first she moved very slowly, but gathering speed, she glided faster and faster, till, with a rush like an avalanche, she darted down the great ice slide, stem first, till, at the bottom, where the iceberg ended abruptly in a precipice forty or fifty feet high, she shot right off, plunging her bowsprit the next instant in the water, and then all was darkness.