Steve Young Part 23

"No, sir, more to the east, by Novaya-Zemlya."

"How horrible!" said Steve with a shudder. "Tell me about something else."

"Yes, sir; I don't want to what the English sailors call spin yarns; that seemed to come naturally after our escape."

"Yes, of course; but tell me this, Johannes. Next time we go off after one of those shoals of white whales--"

"What, sir! you would go again?" said the great amiable-looking fellow, smiling.

"Of course."

"And run risks?"

"Oh, I hope there would not be any risk; but you wouldn't have me play the coward always because we were in danger once?"

"No, no, sir, of course not," said the Norseman, patting the boy on the shoulder. "Well, what if we go after the white whale again? I was trying to make out a school with the gla.s.s when you spoke and made me jump. Their oil is so fine and valuable."

"Yes, I know," said Steve impatiently; "but if we do go after a school again, I want you to let me try and harpoon one."

There was not much room to move, but Johannes, as he smiled in his big, solemn way, managed to take hold of the boy's arm, and gave the biceps a firm grip.

"Shut your hand tight and double up your arm," he said; and Steve obeyed. "Good; that will do. Now take hold of mine."

He imitated the boy's action, and Steve imitated his, taking hold of a huge ma.s.s of muscle that stood right out like a partially compressed ball.

Steve coloured a little at the man's quiet way of showing him the tremendous difference between them in the point of force.

"Well," said Johannes, smiling, "do you still think that you would like to try?"

"Yes. I know I'm only a boy, and can't pretend to have a man's strength; but I should like to try. Don't laugh at me, please."

"No, I was only smiling, my lad. Why should I laugh at one who is young because he wishes to try to be brave and manly and shows a desire to learn?"

"Oh, thank you!" cried Steve eagerly; "that is what I do feel, but people are so ready to banter and laugh at me."

"It is foolish of them," said Johannes, "unless it is when a boy is what you call conceited and self-satisfied, and thinks that he is a man too soon."

"I don't do that, indeed!" cried Steve.

"You need not tell me so," said Johannes; "I can see that in your eyes, and I know it, my boy, from your words."

"And you don't think it absurd of me to want to try and use the harpoon?"

"Oh no. It is not so much an act of strength to dart a harpoon into a soft thing like a white whale, but of practice and knack. The shaft of the harpoon is so long and heavy, that if it is directed well and with good aim it curves over and falls with its own weight as well."

"Then you will let me try!" cried Steve eagerly.

"If the captain is willing, of course you shall. I could sooner teach you to strike a whale than one of your sailors--Hamish or Andra."

"Why?" said Steve eagerly.

"Because you are young and pliant, and eager to learn. You would throw it with your head as well as with your arm. They would throw it with the arm, and trust only to their strength."

"Here, give us the telescope!" cried Steve. "I want to find a shoal and begin at once."

"I daresay," said the Norseman, smiling; "but oil-fishing is not so easy as that, or people would soon make fortunes. I have been on the look-out for hours, but there is nothing in sight."

"But there'll be plenty of walrus when we get to Spitzbergen?"

"Perhaps. I have been there when we could load our boat in a very little while, and I have been there when all through the season we have hardly seen a walrus."

"Oh, but if there are none at Spitzbergen, and we don't find the _Ice Blink_, we must go somewhere else."

"If," said the Norseman, smiling. "If? If what?"

"If we can. The ice may stop us."

"What, for a day or two?"

"For a season or two seasons. One can never tell, sir. The ice is king up here, and has its own way."

"Yes, but kings are conquered sometimes," said Steve merrily; "perhaps we shall master, find the _Ice Blink_, and go right up to the North Pole, where the open Polar Sea lies."

"No open Polar Sea lies up there, young gentleman," said Johannes gravely; and as he spoke he gazed northward with a curious far-off look in his eyes. "I have heard all of that before, but after you pa.s.s the southern edge of the floe it is all ice, ice right away. I know there is land here and there, for one year, eastward of Spitzbergen, we came upon a rocky piece of coast; but whether it was an island or a great country running for hundreds of miles, no one yet knows."

"Well, but how grand to land there and find out," said Steve eagerly.

"I should like that. Would Captain Marsham sail there?" Johannes smiled.

"It does not depend on Captain Marsham," he replied. "Look," he said, pointing northward, "there is the edge of the floe. Suppose you knew that there was land two hundred miles northward, how would you sail there?"

"Of course you could not for the ice."

"That's right," said Johannes; "and so it is year by year. By about August the floe has broken up, and part of it is melted, and one can sail a little way farther north, not very far some years, at others for a long distance; but the time always comes when the ice is solid and the ship cannot pa.s.s, and then at nights it begins to freeze again, and you have to hurry back for fear of being frozen up."

"What's the matter?" cried Steve, for the Norseman suddenly raised his spy-gla.s.s and directed it eastward, where the sea looked to be one dazzling sheen of damasked silver.

There was no answer for some moments, and then the man turned to the gla.s.s.

"Look yonder," he said, "about a couple of points away to the south of the ship's jib-boom."

Steve seized the gla.s.s, and gazed through it, carefully sweeping the sea far and wide.

"Can you make it out?"

"No."

"Try a little more to the south."

"Can't see anything. Yes, I can; a ship's boat bottom upward miles away. It must be a big boat. Why, it's a small ship capsized."